Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Green supporters of renewable energy are horrified at the devastation construction has wrought on pristine Cairns wilderness.
The wind farms angering renewable energy fans
In the ranges behind Cairns, bushland is being cleared in the name of climate action. It’s pitting eco warriors against green energy projects.
Investigation by Mayeta Clark
On the day the Mount Emerald wind farm was officially declared open, Steve Nowakowski felt a heady optimism.
It was winter 2019, the sky was clear and a slight breeze ruffled Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s hair as she spruiked Queensland’s clean, green energy future.
Steve, a renowned wilderness photographer and veteran environmental campaigner, listened in fierce agreement.
“We know we need a very quick transition to renewables and this was a part of a solution,” he says.
…
So after the opening ceremony, he walked to the top of Mt Emerald to get aerial shots of the site.
Steve had bushwalked through Mt Emerald’s native scrub years earlier and knew the landscape well.
…
He had no idea at the time that Mt Emerald would become just one of many wind and solar projects proposed, or already under construction, in this part of Queensland, some on significant tracts of unspoilt wilderness.
“It’s really out of control,” Steve says. “And no one knows about it.”
…
Read more: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-12-12/queensland-wind-farms-clearing-bushland/100683198
I mean, a late awakening Steve, but welcome to the party.
I know we don’t agree on climate change, but the utter devastation of wilderness areas is a significant part of the reason WUWT supporters are opposed to renewable energy. Renewable energy is diffuse, so vast acreages of devastated landscape are required to produce even a fraction of the renewable energy our society would need to transition to Net Zero. And its set to get worse. The materials needs of renewable facilities are so gargantuan, mining and processing would have to be expanded by at least 50% to hit Net Zero by 2050. And that’s not even including backup battery manufacture.
Steve, Michael Moore even made a documentary about the green energy horror show. He set out to expose Big Oil, but what he found was very different to what he expected. I guess you didn’t see his documentary, before you gave your backing to the wind projects.
There is a zero carbon alternative to widespread destruction of the wilderness – nuclear power. Instead of 10s of square miles of wilderness devastation to power a city, an equivalent nuclear plant takes a few acres of land. Maybe its time you and your green friends took a closer look at the possibilities.
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When today’s Bolsheviks secure their one party rule, and they seem to think that’s imminent, environmentalists will find themselves thrown under the bus.
POI, the word “Bolsheviks” is a bit of a misnomer, a Russian word meaning majority. However the green slime are actually Mensheviks, the Russian word for minority! The reality is historically simple, there is always a minority (mensheviks) who seek to manipulate & control the majority, (Bolsheviks), but politically it is expedient to claim representation of the majority when control of that majority is the actual objective, through which the power & money can be seized as part of that manipulation & control!!! I think they call it “Socialism”, it’s a bit like Communism only with a smile on the face but the intention is the same!!!
The Bolsheviks ultimately became the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
I’ve always heard that the difference between
Socialism and Communism is the Communist
“boot in the face forever”is the same with socialism’
but the boot is covered with a fuzzy, pink, bunny slipper.
Socialism is the general economic theory, as opposed to free-market. Communism(Marxism) and fascism are the particular implementations of that theory.
Both demand complete centralized control of the economy and all social structures. Communism centralizes all ownership of property, Fascism cartelizes industry through regulation and taxation. The end effect is the same.
Ergo, as a friend pointed out to me years ago, China is now a Fascist country.
Nobody who is a climate scientist or part of renewable energy is a ‘bolshevik’. This isn’t some communist or left wing plot.
Most of us are OK with nuclear power Griff. Why do most greens oppose it? What is more important, reducing CO2 emissions, or imposing government restraints on capitalist economic activity?
If Greens wholeheartedly backed nuclear, decarbonisation would be rapid and bipartisan.
RE: “If Greens wholeheartedly backed nuclear, decarbonisation would be rapid and bipartisan.”
If Greens wholeheartedly backed nuclear, decarbonisation would still be pointless and undesirable.
Ask Christina Figueres about that. They’ve openly admitted it is about global redistribution of wealth.
It has long been a pseudo-scientific fraud, perpetrated by predominantly left wing academics and propagated by leftwing media campaign platforms maquerading as news outlets.
Yes, every now and then they aren’t so circumspect and let us all know exactly what it is that they are all about:
________________________________
“No matter if the science of global warming is all phony… climate change provides the greatest opportunity to bring about justice and equality in the world.”
– Christine Stewart
“This is the first time in the history of mankind that we are setting ourselves the task of intentionally, within a defined period of time to change the economic development model that has been reigning for at least 150 years, since the industrial revolution.”
– Christiana Figueres
“Isn’t the only hope for the planet that the industrialized civilizations collapse? Isn’t it our responsibility to bring that about?”
– Maurice Strong,
The main obstacle to a stable and just world order is the United States.
-George Soros
“We’ve got to go straight to the heart of capitalism and overthrow it. -George Monbiot
Griff is a paid shill for the CCP
decarbonisation would still be pointless and undesirable.
BINGO! CO2 is NOT a problem.
You consistently lose debates ‘ griff ‘ [ or is it Todd Huffman ?] .and once again trolling here provocatively in bad faith .Alan discussed the Menshiviks analogously [ in the sense of a manipulative power craving minority ] and Steve Case made a distinction between Bolsheviks and environmentalists.. Another dud Straw Man .That said, there are climate scientists who are radical Marxists. Exhibit 1 : ‘ Marxist Climate Scientist Standing for Election in Melbourne ‘ September 11 ,2020 .Lucas Rosas , The Unshackled ” Andrew Charles is a climate scientist working for the Bureau of Meteorology. He’s also a devout Marxist ,an activist with the revolutionary Trotskyist group Socialist Alternative [ SAlt] and a member of ….the Victorian Socialists “.. Read The Unshackled article . https://theunshackled.net/rundown/marxist-climate-scientist-standing-for-election-in-melbourne/
Griff. Never right about anything.
Griff. Never knowingly right about anything.
I think griff is like my sisters who I consider “commie-lite socialists” …. they think happy faces and a fuzzy pink boot in your face is okay communism.
…and never in doubt.
And right on que you toddle in and spew lies.
Once again griff demands that we ignore the evidence in favor of what others want us to believe.
griff has been able to do it, so everyone else should as well.
As to climate scientists not being part of the majority (bolshevik), I do agree with that.
griff, have you read up on the history of December tornadoes yet?
Griff, if one reads the statements of those involved, including CliSciFi scientists, government types (especially UN) and activists, one will see that they are calling for the destruction of capitalism. Explain to me how one could not see this as a Leftist “plot.” The whole push is to replace free markets with planned command and control economies worldwide. Read what the “usual suspects” are actually saying, not what the Leftist media is pushing on the public (propaganda).
Nobody is a big word to use in this assertion. Most university educated under 40 subscribe to some form of socialism
Of course it is. That’s why we call them watermelons. Green on the outside, but Red on the inside. It is ultimately the destruction of capitalism and the redistribution of wealth.
Actually, it is. Seriously. Part of the long-standing socialist methodology is to overthrow the existing order in order to install a new one. Destroying the economy is part of the plan.
The Greens may think that they’re saving the planet, in reality they’re “useful idiots”.
Oh Griff, more pro CCP propoganda!
Yes! This is a communist left wing plot.
Eric, it won’t be intrinsic rationality that brings Greens to accept nuclear power plants, but rather despondency when the millennials push them aside and commission nukes in every postcode.
Who, just who, would have thought that Green stuff would invade nature?!? Any bustard with half a brain!! Peckerheads!!
Ertic
Speaking of green stuff and nature. Will the power cables be buried under ground or should we be expecting to see giant electricity pylons springing up to take the power to where it is to be used?
tony
Giant pylons most likely. The ground is too rocky to build affordable underground cables.
At A$2.4m for every kilometre (US$2.75m/mile?) of transmission line, that’s going to be expensive!
It’s expensive either way. Lots of cash to go every which way, as long as it’s away from us and toward their pockets. What did you think was the point of the exercise?
Expensive and inefficient. Lots of power is going to be lost in transmission.
Expensive, as it needs maintenance even when its not functioning.
Hey, to make the transmission lines at least more functional lets locate the back up generation capacity (nuclear, gas, oil…) out in the boonies with the rest of the wind towers. That’s gotta reduce costs…NOT!
There was a time in my life when we could build multi-lane freeways for $1m/mile. Inflation is one of the consequences of more expensive or less efficient energy sources.
Eric
In my experience the pylons are even uglier than the turbines so it will be interesting to see what the greens make of that
tonyb
The pylons may be uglier than the turbines, but I’d rather look at 5 – 10% of the pylons in a couple of straight line than 100% of the turbines in a large grid pattern.
But you have to have both, the pylons (or expensive and very disruptive underground cables) are necessary to bring the power from the far-flung wind turbines to the cities. Personally, I think the turbines are more esthetically pleasing that the pylons, and I have driven out of my way to watch them spin.
I think neither are pleasing in the wrong environment such as un-spoilt country or exceptional scenery.
I saw turbines once lining a very boring flat Dutch landscape besides a canal. They looked ok there. How effective they are is anther matter
tonyb
Yes, it seems aesthetics is something left out of the equation.
Here in my part of NEOregon we’re fighting both wind and the pylons. Right now, we are seeing wind power starting to fail due to wear and tear. all of it could be relace by a small nuke on the back of a lowboy trailer in each town. No more powerlines and no brownouts when you plug in your tesla.
How old are the turbines when they fail … here in S Alberta the turbines rarely get to 20 years old before they start failing and shortly after the 20 year mark they begin to be abandoned …. likely as uneconomic to repair.
If you have seen one spinning turbine, you have seen them all. Unless maybe when they are burning.
Paint it all green.
Don’t laugh, people! I was involved in the planning of a HV transmission line along the Oregon coast in Tillamook County. The local powers that be insisted we paint the metal towers green in order to get a permit and no reasoning would dissuade them. I laughed every time I drove by the line to see the green towers outlined against the blue/grey of the Pacific Northwest ocean.
BTW, from the viewer’s standpoint forests aren’t green; they are mostly black. As an experiment, we painted steel lattice HV towers flat black for a new transmission line in a forested area of Northern Idaho. You couldn’t see them! After the bright aluminum conductors faded with weathering you’d have to know where to look to see the transmission line in a timbered area.
Greens/leftists can never think beyond next week. The rest of us (who could do some basic maths) realised a decade ago that solar and wind power would require huge tracts of land to make the tiniest dent.
Most greens wouldn’t even understand that if you want to plonk a windmill on a mountain you have to build a road for trucks to get there and then run a cable all the way back to civilisation.
I remember a former politician who would declare himself the “idea man”. It was up to the staff to figure out the details.
Most eco true believers still espouse the belief that the whole world can be powered by such-and-such small area of land covered by wind turbines and solar panels, ignoring the evidence of their own eyes, that is if they both to look.
Yes, all that is necessary is to put the world’s population in a corner of Texas and build wind turbines over their 1,500 sq. ft. plots. That way, no transmission corridors are necessary.
What should the spacing between turbines be for maximum efficiency?
I have “greenie” friends who bowl several nights each week. The bowling center has 60 lanes with auto pin setters and auto scoring, a cafe, a lounge, numerous TVs and a lighted parking lot.With leagues and open bowling all 60 lanes are usually in use each night. I have challenged them for years to estimate how many solar panels would be required to power the establishment. Still awaiting their answer. And, they all drive pickups or SUVs.
I have always intended to ask the owner what her monthly electric usage averages but when I go I rarely get past the lounge.
Look upon my works ye peasants and despair…. with apologies to Percy Bysshe Shelley and his prescient poem Ozymandias
There is nothing green about “green” energy. That is obvious to anybody with more than a handful of brain cells.
Twenty five years ago the eco’s were all in on ethanol, now they want it to go away because it’s worse than fossil fuels. Twenty five years from now, when millions of solar panels and windmills are abandoned and left to rot, they’ll feel the same way about W&S. Never happen? They’ll all be recycled? Take a drive south of Bakersfield, CA, and notice the 1000 or so abandoned wind turbines along the highway at the Mojave airbase. If eco-zealots in Cali can’t get abandoned windmills decommissioned who can?
“If eco-zealots in Cali can’t get abandoned windmills decommissioned who can?”
Well, almost anybody, given the general incompetence of the green blob.
The Chinese estimate by 2030 1 million tons per year of used EV batteries to be disposed of and 1 million tons plus of aged redundant PV panels , both very difficult to recycle . Plus many many thousands of fibreglass wind turbine blades to be buried.
Can you make artificial reefs out of decommissioned turbine blades? Or would they leach toxic chemicals?
Unlike pastics, I imagine fiberglass fibers to be disruptive to sea life since they don’t degrade.
Would like to see an experiment with fiberglass in constant wave motion to verify though.
How exactly are quartz or silica fibers toxic to sea life? Any volcano creates tons of the stuff.
It isn’t the chemical composition, it is the physical shape, as with asbestos.
Fibers in fiberglass are generally resin, not silica.
Many, if not most solar arrays have MSDS documents that clearly identify solar panel breakage as a method that exposes encapsulated or imbedded compounds to the environment as toxic.
It is news to me, and Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiberglass
Thats why they call it glass reinforced plastic (GRP) or fibreglass.
I suspect the fibers might irritate gills.
I was thinking the fibrous glass shards.
There are good reasons why large iron or concrete structures are used for reefs.
Windmill blades would be easily moved by currents. Trying to anchor the blades with blocks of concrete is unlikely to stabilize them for very long.
Why are they burying these blades? We don’t bury all the fiberglass/graphite composite trash we produce. The resins quickly degrade with exposure to weather. (No, they don’t last that long. They are using the cheep stuff. We’ve been making high performance composite structures for a very long time . Such low grade materials require special top-coatings to maintain their structural properties and they abrade easily requiring special maintenance.) Just stack them on the ground and let them rot in the sun. What is the issue? Particulate dust? Any urban landfill produces far more particulates.
But a very small percentage of the landfill particulates are fibrous.
In this case it may spoil the view but it doesn’t look to have ever had tall & thick vegetation. All the towers have access road between that destroys the usual vegetation. Other sites may be worse than this one in terms of biomass removed. YMMV.
Biomass is kind of the opposite of the point here. Ecosystems with little vegetation are continually described as “delicate” by the left when opposing traditional projects (pipelines, powerplants, etc.) such that any disturbance could be significant.
Only the start. Wait till the offshore ones get going….They are like a cancer.
Offshore – where the damage is under the ocean where people can’t see it.
In this case the “damage” is blasting holes in one of the largest photogenic coral reefs in the world. Coral pretty much from the shoreline.
Do you not have seabirds down under, or have the onshore whirlygigs already sliced them up. Visibility is brief, with the evidence soon washed away, and likely happens most intensively at twilight, or under cover of darkness. At least offshore bird destroyers recycle the birds as fish food rather than enticing raptors into the destructive zone.
Steve is an idiot, simple as that
Parallel story from Cairns right now. If you goog [TV Adverts to beef up Cairns water supply] you should get the story. Cairns has huge annual rainfall yet their Regional Council is paying for TV Adverts about enhancing their municipal water supply.
There are three great dam sites in the hills behind Cairns that could mirror the Copperlode Dam (built by the local Cairns council, back in the 1970s when the world was saner) and secure Cairns’ future water supply.
However, the UNESCO World Heritage Listing of the local bush (because Ancient Rainforest!!, which only spread to the hills around 10,000 years ago) makes that impossible.
We never voted for foreigners to control our bush.
We were sold out by the globalist polliemuppets that infest our federal government.
Specifically, the Labor party overtaking The Greens on their left.
All of the planet’s greatest environmental disasters are the results of government policy.
Context is important:
Bruneau-Jarbidge caldera – Wikipedia
The irrational push for ‘Renewable’ energy is going to devastate even more of the Earth’s surface than the worst of the imagined effects of ‘Climate Change’ from the Eco-Loons ever would have.
There’s nuclear and nuclear. Old-fashioned nukes like the almost impossible to build French-designed European Press water Reactors take too long and are ruinously costly? Modern modular construction and a scaling down is addressing those problems.
The absolutely worst option in the UK is solar
JF
Pressurised, sorry, and sorry about the errant.?
No prob thot u were just using short forms. You can edit your post, by clicking the gear symbol near the bottom right corner of your post.
One of these daze it may start to dawn on people that no matter where you live on the planet, solar is latitude driven.
So now what is this idiot going to do?
Where has he been the last two or three decades?
But seriously, I want to follow what he does from here on if he really cares about the planet.
We need to get to any genuine environmentalists in the so-called environmentalist groups and ask them if they realise what is going on, clearly their normal channels of information are highly selective.
The Energy Realists circulated a note on this topic last year and there is a whole series in the pipeline to cover the ten phases from prospecting and mining through construction to demolition and disposal of the panels, batteries and other waste.
https://www.riteon.org.au/netzero-casualties/#212
I live high up on the same ridge as the intermittent, unreliable Mt Emerald wind-to-electricity factory – about five kilometres from the nearest monument to technological ignorance.
Before it came online I could look out my windows at any time of day and see three different species of raptors soaring on the updraft where the wind accelerates up the rising ground profile.
They were plentiful.
Now, a little over three years after it was switched on, the raptors are gone and sightings are rare.
If it weren’t for double standards, greentards would have no standards at all.
Windmills are a crime against wildlife.
“It’s really out of control,” Steve says. “And no one knows about it.”
Relax it’s all under control Steve. You just have to trust the good perfessor and his peer reviewed published science. Now he’s talking about the US but the same scientific percentages will apply to Oz matey-
the transition to such a 100% renewable and storage grid creates approximately 4.7 million more permanent jobs than are lost and requires somewhere between .29% and .55% of new US land for footprint and spacing, respectively, less than the 1.3% occupied by the fossil fuel industry today.
Stanford study demonstrates 100% renewable US grid, with no blackouts | RenewEconomy
Trust absolutely these environmental engineers and their computations Steve as your unfounded fears and doubts can lead to impure thoughts and skepticism and…gulp!.. even questioning the science and methodology and that way lies the dark side with excommunication and ostracism. Pull yourself together Steve or seek woke bespoke counselling.
Oh that Mark Jacobson-
Stanford professor retracts $10 million libel suit against scientific critic, academic journal | The Stanford Daily
There’s a certain correlation with these enthusiastic climate changers I can’t quite put my finger on at the moment but it will come to me….?
Please don’t use the term “Net Zero” Use “Zero” instead.
2 reasons, maybe 3
The wilderness will grow back when the windmills fall over -don’t fret your pretty little head.
In fact, the ‘mills will work to save the wilderness – from deranged eco-arsonists and also those who imagine burning holes in a forest, to relieve the ‘fuel load’, is the best way to Save It.
(See #1 above. again)
They’ll keep the matches in their pockets both cases
Yeah, next time Steve, maybe do a little research.
This story is a beat-up. The location is well inland from Cairns. As you can see from the photo, the area is not rain forest, but dry scrubby land. And it isn’t pristine. Within 4 km, there is the Springmount Raceway, the Springmount waste disposal facility, and the Lotus Glen Correctional centre. Not to mention the Tableland Mill and Evolution Industries.
Setting aside your curious prejudice about how you seem to think only lush rainforest is valuable, take a closer look at the satellite view. The Mount Emerald wind farm appears to be built on the edge of the rather extensive Baldy Mountain Forest Reserve. Steve’s concern appears to be the wind farms will spread out and engulf the entire region.
Mount Emerald is part of the Atherton Tableland. From Wikipedia;
Birds and wind turbines don’t mix.
The story images actually show it is very significant area and it has traditional owners which Nick just ignores. Scroll down thru the images and damage.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-12-12/queensland-wind-farms-clearing-bushland/100683198
Those images display a great deal more detail.
e.g., That the roads were bulldozed level, no matter how deep, making long deep road channels for water to flow more quickly downhill…
All while depriving the landscape of the water that falls there. End of rain forest.
Stupid gits.
The Emerald Wind Farm (53 turbines) was the first significant ‘renewable’ project in FNQ and the local Cairns and Tablelands Eco-warriors cheered it on. However,, the euphoria has worn off as the Kaban Wind Farm (25 turbines) starts construction and the Chalumbin Wind Farm (95 turbines) is set to be approved.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Hollands+Rd,+Tumoulin+QLD+4888/@-17.5661146,145.4081942,2798m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x69820172ade724ef:0x72929a79ab5457db!8m2!3d-17.5661146!4d145.4169489
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Chalumbin+Hill/@-17.7666656,145.4991571,5590m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x697f57b42c756f85:0xa98a1d437fa3b062!8m2!3d-17.7666667!4d145.5166667!5m1!1e4
Everybody loves wind turbines.
Until someone proposes building a wind farm near them.
Green profiteers at the other end of the NIMBY stick.
Nitpick Nick swings and misses!
Why don’t you like nuclear power and fossil fuels?
Nick comes along to define what is important because someone voted him the umpire?
Perhaps you should take it up with Mayeta Clark at the ABC and set her straight with your extensive biology and eco system background Nick.
He’s a liberal. In his mind that makes him an exert on everything, and entitled to tell lesser beings how to run their lives.
Not to worry it’s Jirrbal land and the traditional owners are now aware of the damage of what was supposed to be a low impact development so the fun should really be on.
Nick you better go and tell them it’s just worthless scrub because you defined it as such and they should just ignore the damage.
Interesting. A few percent of the land is being used by industry, therefore there is no problem destroying the rest of the land by putting wind turbines and power pylons all over it.
“ A few percent of the land is being used by industry”
Eric described it as “the devastation construction has wrought on pristine Cairns wilderness.”. It isn’t pristine; the wind farm is dwarfed by a large official rubbish tip. It isn’t Cairns; it is a long way inland, in dry country. And it isn’t a wilderness, with a rubbish tip, a racetrack, and a jail.
You should live next to it with your extra blanket for warmth…human 💩
I think the pictures of the area and the traditional owners may disagree but Nick doubles down because it is on WUWT he must attack. You really are a nutcase and no distortion is to much for the cause.
Only facts that agree with the left wing narrative qualify as facts.
I guess your ‘logic’ is that if someone is so unfortunate as to have a pretty face, but an ugly body, then there is no harm in mutilating the face.
Have the turbines built in your urban parks and beaches to have them in sight as you love them so much
It was pristine area before the wind farm and it is a mere 56 km from the coast. Being dry and scrubby doesn’t detract from being pristine, the continent is made up of diverse vegetation types, and they are all unique in their diversity
Going down the Gilles highway from the tableland, the road has rain forest on one side, when you round that spur , within 500 meters, the vegetation changes eucalyptus forest and that is within 24 km of the ocean. So learn the geography, of the state, 56 km is not remote and the monstrocity is visual pilution in a very scenic area, not to mention the physical pollution it causes. Eben the Windy Hill wind farm at Raveshoe is a visual more blight on the landscape.
I get where you’re coming from Nick but you have to understand what you’re up against with these watermelon eco-warriors. They deal in absolutes and there’s not a rational sense of the tradeoff or cost benefit analysis inside their heads. It’s all about emotion and the struggle. Doesn’t matter what the struggle is over. Just so long as they’re immersed in the outrage and the struggle and unleashing changing the global climate is now the ultimate struggle for them. What could be bigger?
Their absolutism and emotional urge to struggle for that corker has made them anti-human toward those with any sense of reason getting in their way. Consequently trying to harness them productively is like herding cats-
Taking a walk on the rewild side: is it time for a new approach to conservation? (msn.com)
They just get more extreme in thought and deed by the day and graduating into the ultimate with the XR doomsday cult is a natural progression along with their bizarro wokeness. Nothing rational or achieving anything worthwhile about them but you’re going to change the climate with them remember. You know- the windmills solar panels and Elon 😉
“ He had no idea “
A common problem with the green fraternity. They don’t think.
Greens largely live in cities, never see nature except in propaganda documentaries, and don’t know from where or how their energy or food are produced.
I can recommend another documentary which is about the harmful impacts of windfarms in Sweden: Headwind 21 (Marijn Poels).
Sorry, no props for Marijin he’s an eco loon who suddenly discovered that the world doesn’t work the way he wants it to. He’s a dope.
bloody hilarious…they wanted birdshredders they got em
and now theyre upset?
Well you can want the bird shredders but not the transmission lines silly-
Wildlife concerns blunt Germany’s green power efforts (msn.com)
(I don’t make this stuff up honest!)
My takeaway: The government puts into place rules that frustrate development of transmission lines because of environmental concerns. When the government wants to build more transmission lines, they change the rules. The same environmental concerns exist, but they are subordinate to new, arbitrary governmental policy.
With the near-certainty of changing governmental policies, why would normal investors undertake projects in the absence of governmental subsidies and guarantees? This is how socialists destroy free market capitalism; arbitrary, politicized and ideological government policies … Third World lawless and capricious shit.
The basic issue is that the Eco-warrior foot soldiers live in a bubble, listening to their own ‘think tanks’ and ‘gurus’. While cheering on the billions of dollars of tax payer funds subsidizing wind and solar farms, siphoning money away from health, education, infrastructure etc. they have zero understanding a to the scale of ‘renewables’ required to replace fossil fuel dispatchable base load power.Worst still, it has not dawned on they as too the environmental impacts of exploration, mining, processing, manufacturing, installation and disposal requirements for their ‘carbon free’ energy.
Optimum equivalent requirements to replace 1GW of Dispatchable Base-load Power:
Wind – nameplate capacity 4.04GW plus 10.1GW of Battery or Hydro Storage, equivalent to
9 x $850M Coopers Gap Wind Farms each with 123 x 3.75MW turbines complete with battery backup equivalent of 52 x $172M, Hornsdale Power Reserves for an approximate cost of $17B.
Solar – nameplate capacity 4.55GW plus 15.75GWh of Battery or Hydro Storage, equivalent to 45 x $200M, 100MW Yarranlea Solar Farms, each with 372,833 x 360watt solar panels complete with battery backup storage equivalent to 81 x $172M, Hornsdale Power Reserves at an approximate cost of $A23B.
Source: Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise – Measuring-Renewable-Energy-as-Baseload-Power
https://www.kenaninstitute.unc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Kenan-Institute-Report-Measuring-Renewable-Energy-as-Baseload-Power-v2.pdf
Great detailed descriptions!
Don’t forget the land needs for wind or solar and the batteries needed to support each.
Lithium batteries that size need a lot of space and cooling to minimize problems when they combust.
This is optimised to the complete exclusion of fossil fuel. However the paper considers a mix of intermittent and fossil generation.
At present fossil fuels costs, there is no economic solution for wind and solar. The economic solution is zero wind or solar.
I wonder if there will ever be a point where a combination of wind or solar plus battery plus fossil fuel dispatchable will offer an economic solution.
If you sow the wind you shall reap the whirlwind.
Watch this video of the construction of a “wind farm” in western Massachusetts a decade ago. It’s a time lapse and is amazing to watch. This is in the “beautiful Berkshires” a tourist area. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSgVpz_7dDg. They had to make a road to the top of the mountain 100′ foot wide. Since then, few wind farms have been built on land in MA since everybody hates them.
About the same time an 18 acre “solar farm” was built behind my neighborhood in central MA, a mostly low income area since all the once thriving industry here were moved to China so that the 1% could get even richer- while many of the locals fell into poverty, obesity and opiate drug addiction. When this “farm” was proposed- they were going to build it to 10′ of the backyards of the half acre modest ranch houses on my street. I sued the company and the town planning board and we settled which pushed them back a bit and they coughed up $35,000 to landscape the backyards with new trees and shrubs- and they planted 500 arborvitae trees on the boundaries. This “clean and green” energy facility is on the aquifer for the town. The site was originally a forest, then farmland, then much of it cleared gravel extraction. The gravel extraction had ceased years earlier and much of the site grew back to forest. The site is right next to a river, several vernal pools and a 50 acre state owned wetland managed for wildlife. Because of these environmental concerns I thought the enviro groups would offer some assistance in preventing the construction or at least shrinking it. But no, they showed no interest- I invited them to take a look- nobody showed up. I went out almost every day to watch and film the construction and made a rank amateur video. It should be obvious it took a lot of fossil fuel to build this “clean and green” facility: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYYVZKgusU4. Ironically, the enviros didn’t mind when these solar farms were build in low income communities but when they started to be built in their higher income communities- now we’re seeing them complain about them- because trees have to be cut to build them. In fact, the former state energy czar admitted in a zoom meeting that hundreds of thousands of acres of forest will have to be sacrificed to get to net zero, which must happen by law by 2050. After he admitted that- he was fired.
I’ve always been fascinated at how upset people who will drive miles to shop where it is cheapest, get their panties in a wad when companies do the same thing.
That was one of the biggest reasons I quit the U.S. Federal government: Honesty is penalized in ideologically-driven systems.
Messengers with honest appraisals and facts quickly learn to keep their mouths shut. Or they get shot just walking in a door.
Vernal pools, wetlands?
Contacting Trout Unlimited and Ducks Unlimited along with every fishing club and sportsman organization in Massachusetts should get some attention.
Hunters and fishermen helped states purchase wetlands. You might as well get their dander up.
Massachusetts has many TU members.
Just tell them that solar farms change water runoff.
Did all that a decade ago- nobody showed any interest- they all thought solar farms would be groovy- now they’re seeing the damage and now there is resistance from the major enviro groups- who think the solution is to put solar only on roofs and parking lots. But, there aren’t enough roofs and parking lots in the state to get to net zero nirvana- and the cost is greater than putting them on the landscape. The conclusion they haven’t yet come to- is that net zero is a stupid idea.
It is easy to do the calculation to arrive at a figure like wind energy plus storage is at least 100X more materials intensive than a gas fired generator for a given dispatchable capacity. That video puts the 100X in perspective.
It is a mind-boggling waste of resources. The so-called “developed” world has to be smarter than this.
If Biden’s MULTI-$TRILLION BBB bill becomes law, there would be a vast amount of environmental devastation all over the US, including on hundreds of miles of 2000-ft-high ridge lines, with 500-ft high wind turbines, in New England.
That would be creating huge turmoil among the US people, all while China, India, etc, continue burning at least 8 BILLION metric ton of coal, each year.
I am not surprised at the lack of PUBLIC TRUST in WASHINGTON, DC, and elsewhere in the world.
The games of smoke and mirrors played in Washington are off-the-charts outrageous.
NEVER, EVER, has there been such a level of DECEIT, as Dem/Progs have inflicted on the US People, since January 2021, after using a fraudulent election to achieve a COUP D’ETAT, to have a major increase of CENTRALIZED COMMAND/CONTROL over the federal government and the US people.
Here is an egregious example:
Build Back Better’ Would Cost $4.95 TRILLION Over the Next Decade, if Provisions Were Made to Last 10 Years
https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/build-back-better-would-cost-3-95-trillion-overt-the-next-decade
Phase 1
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) had estimated on Nov. 18, the US House-passed ‘Build Back Better’ (BBB) bill, if it would become law, would increase the US national debt by a mere $160 BILLION over the next decade, if the various programs of the bill had different expiration dates. Some programs would expire in one year, others in two years, etc. The BBB bill would establish universal preschool, expand Medicaid, and provide green energy tax credits, etc.
NOTE: The Media, et al, called it the “$1.75 TRILLION bill,” but, after some last-minute “adders” to get more votes, the bill’s cost became $2.11 TRILLION. That bill was sent to the US Senate; fingers crossed.
NOTE: Having various “expiration dates” of programs, within a bill, is a standard procedure to make its cost APPEAR a lot smaller than in reality. Pelosi/Sanders/Schumer, et al, applied that smoke-and-mirrors charade to make the cost of the BBB bill APPEAR small, and to make the “added to US national debt” APPEAR small.
NOTE: The original BBB bill was for $6.0 TRILLION, as concocted by Socialist Sanders. When that proved to be a non-starter, he “whittled it down” to an alleged $3.5 TRILLION, which, he said was the “absolute minimum”. That bill contained various smoke-and-mirror schemes, such as various programs of the bill having different expiration dates.
Phase 2
After some US Senate committees reviewed the BBB bill, as is standard practice with all US House bills, they ordered the CBO to make another estimate.
The CBO released its estimate on Friday, December 10, which showed the BBB bill would INCREASE the US national debt by $3.0 TRILLION, if the proposed programs were made permanent for 10 years, i.e., if all programs of the bill started at the same time and ended at the same time. Of course, once any government program has started, it would take a revolution to end it. See Note
https://www.newsmax.com/politics/cbo-finance-build-back-better-bide…
NOTE: The $3 TRILLION includes interest, because as any money is added to the US national debt, in a given year, due to deficit spending, it immediately begins accruing interest.
Schumer had been pressing very hard to get the deceitful, smoke-and-mirrors, BBB bill passed, between November 18 and December 12, because he knew the CBO estimate regarding the REAL cost of the bill would be a game-changing revelation for a lot of US House members, and US Senators, and the US people. The popular backlash would be enormous.
He relentlessly pushed to have it passed 1) before “Biden goes to Glasgow, Scotland, to strengthen his hand”, 2) before Thanksgiving, 3) before Christmas, 4) before the end of the year.
Well, the cat is finally out of the bag. NO SUCH BILL WILL BE PASSED, EVER.
Dem/Progs, who typically make their careers in government, not in private enterprise businesses, have absolutely no intention of letting ANY programs expire. They would fight tooth and nail, for as long as it takes, to EXTEND all of them, for the full 10 years.
NEW TAXES
Various taxes had to be increased, and new taxes had to be imposed, for an alleged total of $1.95 TRILLION.
This “revenue side” (politicians hate it, but it is required by law) likely is another smoke and-mirrors charade, because those additional taxes would have to be voted on, and most of them likely would not garner enough votes.
MISCELLANEOUS COMMENTS
“If the temporary provisions of this BBB bill were extended for the full ten years, and I fully expect them to be, if Dem/Progs would have the votes to do it, this legislation would cost a whole lot more than what the American people have been misled to believe,” said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas.
Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., a critic of the plan, and the outrageous costs, accused the Biden administration of using “gimmicks” to downplay the bill’s cost.
“As more of the real details outlined in the basic framework are released, what I see are shell games and budget gimmicks that make the real cost of this so-called “$1.75 TRILLION bill” to be at LEAST TWICE AS HIGH, if the programs are extended, or made permanent,” Manchin said
The REALISTIC COST of the bill would be: $1.95 TRILLION, new taxes + $3.0 TRILLION, added to the US national debt = $4.95 TRILLION
Democrats, who hold a narrow Senate majority, would need Manchin’s vote to pass the BBB bill.
Manchin has yet to endorse the package, as proposed, and will probably seek to make significant changes, according to CNBC.
It looks like “significant changes” is the understatement of the year, because a few months ago, Manchin stated, he would consider a BBB bill costing no more than $1.5 TRILLION.
However, Dem/Progs could not help themselves, and, in a feeding frenzy, piled on one program after another.
Major surgery, or cancellation of the BBB bill would be required, to revert to a proper level of fiscal sanity.
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Arizona, may seek to change the bill in the Senate.
She already shot down the administration’s effort to hike tax rates on large corporations and wealthy individuals, per CNBC.
All this ADDED DEFICIT SPENDING would be taking place with inflation at about 6.8%/y, Nov21 (it was 6.2% in Oct21) the highest rate in over 30 years, courtesy of the extreme, radical, leftist posse of Biden handlers.
https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/producer-prices
The adults in the US Senate must finally step up to the plate to stop the madness of the Biden posse.
Related Stories:
Manchin Calls for a ‘Lot of Changes’ to Build Back Better Act
Rep. Estes to Newsmax: US ‘Better Off’ If Build Back Better Fails
Is the CBO still required by law to assume that changes in tax rates have no impact on economic activity?