I only listened to the first minute on wind, because I have a bizarre aversion to wasting my life, but that was plenty:
• He said, “Wind turbines need to run five months of the (12 month) year just to make up for the CO2 that went into making them.” Nowhere close. That would suggest an EROI (energy return on investment) of 7 : 5, or 1.3 : 1, where in fact, it’s somewhere between 15 : 1 and 30 : 1; the most commonly reported figure is 18 : 1.
• CO2 isn’t the only thing at stake here. In many cases, wind offsets coal which, in addition to CO2, releases methane, arsenic, cadmium, selenium, and mercury, not to mention an array of radioactive isotopes. It’s responsible for an estimated 1 million deaths per annum, not to mention a huge number if illnesses. In addition to human suffering, Harvard Medical School estimates the healthcare cost of coal at $500 billion per year in the U.S. alone.
• That “wind kills birds and bats” is true, but they’re thousands of times more likely to be killed by plate glass windows, cats, and automobiles.
• If it’s true that “100K birds are killed each year in Germany” (I haven’t looked that up), keep in mind that the world bird population is estimated at 400 billion, and the land mass of Germany is about 1/1000th of the planet’s total (minus Antarctica), thus it’s likely that Germany’s bird population is somewhere near 400 million, which is 4000 times the number of annual deaths. Also, the wind energy industry is working hard to ameliorate this situation.
• He says, “Offshore wind kills birds at sea.” Offshore wind farms are typically 5 – 15 miles from shore. Birds, obviously, don’t like to be far offshore where they can’t land, eat, etc.
• He claims offshore wind pollutes the water? Say what?
• Lastly, I’m not fond of people who say, as he did, “Renewable energy isn’t the answer” without answering the obvious question, “OK, what is?”
The real problem began when he said, “I’ve run across a few YouTube videos that say renewable energy isn’t as good as everybody says it is.” If you YouTube “Flat Earth” or “Chemtrails,” or “Obama born in Kenya,” or “Hillary Clinton child porn,” you can convince yourself of a great number of completely groundless things.
There are many thousands of recognized experts in wind. General Electric has 40,000 employees in more than 80 countries as part of GE Renewable Energy, which is almost exclusively wind.
I made the following comment on this clown’s video decrying renewable energy: “Completely incorrect about wind. One misstatement after another.”
Craig,
Do you invent the “readers” and their questions simply to hold “mock debates” you can easily answer ?
I ask this because you don’t really present any real arguments for what you advocate except arrogant excuses and when asked tough question, fall silent.
1) “Ryan”, pointed out that both onshore and off shore turbines kill bird life (and bats). It’s true turbines not only kill flying wildlife, (far more than 100 per year) but the vibrations are also a problem for flying creatures.
Your answer about birds not flying off shore is kind of silly. Birds fly great distances off shore, as any sailor will tell you, whether migratory, traveling to island breeding grounds or simply fishing, bird can be found hundreds of miles out to sea.
Offshore wind installation are by necessity, not located hundreds of miles in the ocean depths. Of shore turbines are built along coastal regions.
Are any bird species really threatened to extinction by turbines, I shouldn’t imagine so, but I don’t know, and I’m damn sure you have no idea either!
2) Wind turbine cause oceanic pollution. just replying “say what?” followed by a sneer, seems to me to be a trifle inadequate a response! It doesn’t seem to indicate a fault in the claim, but more a petulant response by someone who can’t refute the claim !
So here’s the challenge:
Provide evidence Wind Turbines do not add to oceanic pollution and environmental disturbance?
(bet you never reply?)
3) Wind power costings. None of your figures are accurate! Without government and consumer subsidies 94% of all Wind power installations are not cost effective nor efficient generators of of electricity.
4) You persist in repeating a lie to justify Wind power.
Modern power stations no longer emit CO2, methane, arsenic, cadmium, selenium, mercury, or an array of radioactive isotopes.
Modern coal power plants do not cause an estimated 1 million deaths per annul, or ” huge number of illnesses”.
On the other hand, Wind turbines do contain a wide range of all these toxins and no adequate disposal program has been undertaken to safely dispose of these monsters when obsolete.
[https://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/renewable/wind/big-winds-dirty-little-secret-rare-earth-minerals/ ]
Makes interesting, if horrifying, reading.
4) You criticize “Ryan” for not answering the question ” if Renewable energy isn’t the answer “OK, what is?”.
There are very good alternatives, the merits of which you simply refuse to debate or even consider, so how sincere is your advocacy?