Clean Wind Power

Windmills have significant embedded costs. Surprisingly, they are significantly environmentally destructive. Each weighs 1,688 tons (the equivalent of 23 houses) and contains 1,300 tons of concrete, 295 tons of steel, 48 tons of iron, 24 tons of fiberglass. Carrying on a recurrent theme here, we have the rare and expensive to extract rare earths neodymium, praseodymium, and dysprosium. Each blade weighs 81,000 pounds and will last 15 to 20 years, at which time it must be replaced. We cannot recycle used windmill blades. Sadly, both solar arrays and windmills kill birds, bats, sea life, and migratory insects. Ironically, 

There may be a place for these technologies, but you must look beyond the myth of zero emissions. Windmills will be likely be mostly abandoned once the embedded environmental costs of making and replacing them become apparent. On a recent trip to Europe I saw a couple smaller windmills in an industrial park being dismantled; they were too noisy to have close to the workers and buildings. Many countries in Western Europe are holding off on significant windmill investments because nobody wants to see them, NIMBY, yes, but even “I don’t want to see them way over there,” with a wave of one’s arm.