Wind Energy Issues

This page contains links to the articles on issues related to wind energy deployment.

Wind Deployment Issues

• The Simple Arithmetic of Wind Power
• Numerous reports from Maryland to Canada to France on wind turbine noise.
• Standard noise permitting does not account for the real problem.
• Huge industrial machines moving in the open air have negative effects

• Grand Cover-Up: Sierra Club Conceals American’s Growing Hostility to Wind Power

Environmental Impacts

• Wind Energy having population level effects on bird species

• Bluestone Wind, Broome County, New York
• How Many Birds Are Killed By Wind Turbines?
• Wind turbines are a threat to birds

• Wind turbines are a threat to bats

• Wind turbines are killing eagles

• Wind farms have cascading effects on ecosystems

• Wind turbines in Wyoming are killing eagles

Wind Energy Costs

• Audited accounts show that far from getting cheaper, wind power is actually becoming more expensive
• Out to Sea: The Dismal Economics of Offshore Wind
• Great Britain offshore wind costs
• The dramatically falling costs of renewables are now a political, a media, and conversational cliché. However, the claim is demonstrably false.

Wind Energy Analysis

• Donn Dears provides an objective analysis of wind energy

Offshore Wind

• Offshore wind needs to be transferred on shore using undersea cables that do not have a reliable history

• Our EnergyPolicy (OEP) hosted a panel discussion on New York State’s emerging offshore wind market, and the policy and business challenges facing this evolving sector, in its Energy Leaders Luncheon Series December 2019 event in New York City.  During the question and answer period the following question was asked: Will wind turbines in New York be able to withstand a Category 5 storm?

  Clint Plummer, the head of market strategies and new projects for Ørsted, the world’s largest owner, developer, and operator of offshore wind, responded that “wind turbines are designed to withstand a Category 3 hurricane, and they have built into their permit applications an insurance fund that can pay for repairs in cases of catastrophic loss from a storm more severe”. He said “a Category 5 hurricane has a return period in excess of 100 years, while the design life of a wind farm is 30-35 years, so wind turbines are not designed to withstand a Category 5 storm because they are not expected to experience one”. “Anything less than that up to a certain speed is just a really good day for producing a lot of wind power,” he said

• Offshore wind turbine spacing is becoming an issue that will add costs.  As turbines become bigger their wakes become bigger and that leads to a reduction of output at any existing turbine that is too close.  “An important new working paper from renewables consultants ArcVera is reporting that the wake effects behind the huge turbines that are now coming onstream are going to be much worse than previously thought.”