43,000 TONS of wind turbine blades will enter landfills each year? What do you think?

[Dargil]

Is this good Green Energy or bad for the environment?
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/03/clean_energy_projection__86_million_pounds_of_turbine_blades_to_enter_landfills_each_year.html

[NamerOfStars]

That, as a very wise man once said, you should never take down a fence without knowing why it was put up.

The fossil fuel revolution let more of the world lift itself out of poverty than had ever happened in human history. If you're going to leave them behind as a power source, you need something to replace them- and if you're going to do so intelligently, you need SEVERAL things to replace them, because a diverse power grid is a stable power grid. Improve the efficiency and recyclability of solar and wind power, and they can help- but they're not going to be able to do it on their own.

If you want to completely remove oil, coal, and natural gas from energy production, you have three options: 1. go nuclear, 2. go geothermal, 3. fail. You also need a LOT of time, since the changes have to be made gradually; the decision to push electric cars before they were ready for prime time has lead to people buying, en masse, cars that are both absolutely and proportionately more deadly than Pintos.

Nuclear plants are generally the best option; yes, storing waste IS a concern- there are no free lunches in power production- but the question of "what do we do with this hunk of spent fuel rod the size of two pencil erasers representing your electrical consumption?" is NOT, in fact, harder to solve than "what do we do with this enormous cloud of carcinogenic toxins representing your electrical consumption- oh, wait, we'll just store it safely in the lungs of thousands of people". Nuclear plants began as a way of dealing with excess uranium left over from producing warheads, but they can also run on the far more abundant thorium, and if you're worried about a Chernobyl-style meltdown, we've had molten-salt technology since the 60's that makes that impossible.

Interestingly, the country is sitting on a power resource that is not only clean and safe (in relative terms, of course, but it's the cleanest and safest type we have), but could, if fully tapped, meet the energy needs (no, not just the electrical needs, the energy needs) of the entire PLANET. Know what that is? Yellowstone. Of course, it's a unique geological formation, and a National Park on top of that; tapping it would be against the law. But we've got three other supervolcanoes in this country alone that AREN'T protected (as far as I know), and there's a whole world of power waiting to be used.

[Leopard23]

Something like 20% of our energy is from renewable energies like wind. There is no environmental friendly energy production, there is only less pollutant energy production. We 100% definitely need to be less dependent on foreign oil and need yo conserve our oil/gas reserves while using the reserves of other foreign nations up. More nuclear power plants too.

[Dargil]

Renewable energy: 12.7%, Without unknown technology improvements, wind and solar are ultimately unworkable. Nuclear electric power: 9.6%. When intelligent leaders get around to it, nuclear is likely the best solution, although mined "fossil" minerals will be around indefinitely. When eliminating fossil fuels, we have to consider all the materials made from them right down to your phone.

We will never "save the planet" because the climate always changes. Much of the USA will be under a mile of ice in less than 60k years.

[Leopard23]

But renewable energy is working and is getting better all the time.
The thing about using fossil fuels is that we are more efficient in using it and we've less carbon monoxide emissions. In cars there is a lot of alternative fuel methods being tried out, which ever method proves the most efficient and cost effective will be the next one. Abroad diesel is very popular for cars because it cost less than gasoline over there, is more efficient and diesel engines last longer and are more reliable though diesel is dirtier and less powerful.

[jshm2]

It's bullshit, of course. Which is why no serious media outlet is covering the story.

The reality is that American's blade production used fibreglass (which is non-recyclable) instead of metal like the Germans, Japanese and Koreans. Hence why no-one bought the American made crap.

Now that a lot of that infrastructure needs replacing, American corporations are looking for "green bailouts". All to fix the problem they caused.

Story of American business in general.

[Leopard23]

Sadly thus buisness of corporations f*cking up and expecting the US taxpayer to stump up a bail out because they are too big to fail is getting out of hand

[Soteris]

Well that is nice. Shows how well the industry is doing.