Wind Energy is Not Green, It’s Just Energy
In physics, energy is not green
If you study physics, which is what you study if you want to know about energy, you’ll learn all about potential energy and kinetic energy, you might learn about heat energy which becomes the study of thermodynamics, there’s so much you need to know and many of us find it extremely interesting, but look all you want through your physics textbook and you won’t see anything about “green energy.” Why not? Because “green energy” isn’t science, it’s politics. There are no scientific laws that apply, no equations you can solve, it’s just a series of ideas you can “believe in,” and if you do, you can call yourself green.
Originally Posted by Hotrod511
This is in reply to your title, Wind Energy is Not Green, It’s Just Energy, and not on topic with your thoughts about the Green Religion. Which I agree with by the way.
Just exactly how are you going to have windmills in a world with zero net carbon emissions? The first consideration, you need to burn coking coal to make steel, which is main material used to construct windmills. Second, how are you going to transport the coking coal and iron ore to the steel plants? And the various other materials and parts to the component manufacturers, final manufacturer, and the site? If it involves going over water, which is what's required right now with existing supply chains, you're probably not going to be able to do it with something like solar powered boats. If you're transporting to an out of the way area, where many windmills are located, you're probably going to want to use diesel trucks. And the biggest question, even if the USA and Western Europe are willing to jump through the hoops to manufacture and install windmills with a minimum of carbon emissions, is there a snowball's chance in hell the rest of the world will?
OK, admittedly windmills are a drop in the bucket in the big picture, but many of the things we take for granted require hydrocarbons and coal as inputs.
In another thread, Agrarian posted about the evils of fracking. However, in West Texas, where there's a lot of fracking and wind, ranchers and farmers, the people most directly effected, are more inclined to favor oil and gas instead of wind. Part of the reason is because they get more money from oil. Part of the reason is because fracking is unlikely to affect groundwater used for drinking or irrigation. Part is because the windmills take up a larger footprint. And part is because they believe the windmills may reduce the value of the land, in excess of the income they'll get from the power company, when they go to sell it.