Who Cleans Up When a Wind Farm Retires?
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- Опубликовано: 24 авг 2016
- The Ponnequin Wind Farm straddles the border of Wyoming and Colorado. It's scheduled to be dynamited in 2016. What will happen to the pieces? Inside Energy's Leigh Paterson looks at what happens to wind turbines when they retire.
I wonder...in the 18 years those turbines were running, did they generate as much electricity as it took to produce them, deliver and install them in the first place?? And if you factor in how much energy is going to be used scrapping them, have they ever repaid their own carbon footprint??? I rather think they probably haven't.
Great point
Most "green" energy is a scam, including the mining for solar panels
and batteries.
@@mikyl-fo8rh 'No No anything is better than oil and coal and nuclear. What we really need to do is put giant free energy structures into the oceans that can be retired and abandoned never to be seen again. That's green energy.' smh I get pissed every time see shit like this, our "virtue" sets us down the path of stupidity without regard to the long term impacts. In North Carolina prime farm land has/is being converted to solar panel farms...the wildlife populations have been already been impacted, and so will our crop productions.
No they don't... It's a proven fact ..it's hard to find due to big tech...
stop asking hostile questions, you are invading the safe space the left lives. They prefer fantasy and feel good gestures. Reality just gets in the way.
It's funny that new wind farms need to go on new unused land rather than on land already put aside for existing decommissioned wind farms. It's also odd that the towers the windmills are attached to aren't being reused. It's almost like none of the elements of a wind farm are renewable, even the elements that are just as viable today as the day they were built.
Newer wind turbines tend to be a lot larger (the air flows more strongly a little way up, and a larger blade disc captures a lot more energy) so there’s almost no chance of reusing existing masts. Existing concrete bases, unless overspecified, are likely too small.
Fortunately, the payback time on a modern wind turbine is miniscule, so it doesn’t matter if the old parts have to be ripped out.
Terrible waste
The compound interest on the debt is the goal. Maintenance and its associated trades economy does not make the bank any money.
@@gdutfulkbhh7537 B.S.
@@gdutfulkbhh7537 you are full of lies...
Definitely gives meaning to the phrase "renewable energy." They have to be renewed every few yeara.
Yes, about 20-30 year. Your car's life is half a year for a wind turbine. Can you do a quick math? 😉
Lie. Renewed less often than reactors need new fuel.
Unreliables
Sailing ships were retired from hauling goods overseas for the same reasons
Unreliability….
Don’t worry the tax payer will pick up the tab
@@joeyaldente8858 The single biggest reason to replace windmills is not maintenance, but obsolescence.
@@batmanlives6456 Wrong.Sailing ships were retired because coal and oil power are FASTER, nothing else.
Now we find that oil power is unreliable, being too expensive to use on bulk materials.
And lo, the sail returns in the form of Magnus turbines.
I see this farm every time I make a trip to see my inlaws in Cheyenne. The problem with wind farms is they require constant maintenance due to the moving parts, and they don't generate consistent electricity, even in one of the windiest states in the country. They are a novel idea for "green energy" but that's all they are, an idea that's ineffective and unreliable.
All wind farms are down. Coal plants are clean. None of the coal plants are retired. GOOOOOOOOO COAL!!!! It's so clean.
Wind Turbines make guilt-ridden Liberals feel good.
Coal is the way to go.
They also require oil, what is used to clean it up oh machines run on gas
I did not know they were turbans I d I o t s
put a DO NOT STEAL sign on them and watch them magically disappear
Breaking Toast you put a sign on them saying “100% pure copper”
@@paulsergel8161 amazing what those copper people can do
Ha! Like when homer simpson couldnt get rid of the trampoline....bart put a padlock on it and it was stolen when they turned their back.
@@georgiojansen7758 If they worked as hard as they worked at stealing, they'd have a good life.
Cant you just hook up a wire to that turbine towards your home,
FREE ENERGY, and if you hook it up correctly the Meter will spin backwards, making the electric company pay for "the energy you overproduce"
Why do they retire? I thought they were "sustainable" or "renewable?" Turns out they're crap!
This is similar to the problem of orphaned oil and gas wells. Here in Alberta, Canada, it is required that the oil companies clean up their unused wells, but are refusing to do so. It appears that the province's taxpayers are going to foot the bill, and cleaning up oil and gas wells could well be more challenging than dismantling a wind farm, due to the presence of pollution accrued over the years.
Sounds like your government is weak
Taxpayers always get stuck
Ok well this is America not communist Canada
petrol is bio-degradeable
@@thomasgarbe8354 It's also quite toxic.
The bonding is subject to many exemptions that other surety companies do not have. There will be no money to clean up when it comes time. These bonding companies will evaporate just like the joint venture that built the "farm" in the first place.
I figure about two bus loads of tweakers could have that wind farm stripped bare in about four and a half days.
And 100 bulldozers.
Tell them that you lost your baggie of crack in one of the walls of the turbines but you forgot which one they'll be gone today
@@billyquaid3048 Put them in boxes, then place them on front porches. Problem solved.
@Troy Hendrickson True, but there has to be miles of wire in there. If they had to take the turbines down to get to it, those towers would be gone in a hurry.
@Troy Hendrickson as opposed to what coastal cities do, which is burn themselves to the ground under the guise of protesting?
So fast forward 2021 and how well did that work? Brown outs blackouts in California. Frozen wind turbines in Texas no power. Oh yes the green New deal
frozen turbines ? we have turbines in the arctic and in Canada running perfectly fine below -30c and your telling me Americans can't make a turbine run just below freezing? what a shit hole, also your fucking natural gas plants and pipes froze? what the fuck? our pipes work perfectly fine to transport natural gas in any weather condition. Didn't made in China used to be the crap quality now its made in USA trash and dangerous since their stuff won't function with mildly cold temperature.
@@emko333 . This is what happens when the US government convinces the US population that we have so many jobs in the high-tech industry that we need to bring in foreign workers to take those jobs then our industrial base gets incentives to move their manufacturing processes over to China who then steals the information and patents and then bills these products at a much lower price point and quality wise much lower quality so this is what happens when your government goes awry and should look around your own backyard because they're doing the same thing in Canada now
@@emko333 It's Texas. Stuff there has to handle 120+F air temp (49C) regularly. It's not uncommon to have 100 consecutive days of 100+F (38C). They had multiple consecutive days sub-0F (-18C) in a place that very rarely sees 30F (-1C).
Everything down there is not built to handle that cold of temperatures because something like that happens once in forever. The last time it got that cold was the Great Blizzard of 1899.
I remember back in the 1950s in Texas. There were old abandoned oil derricks still standing. History returns with the abandoned windmills
It's still happening today, except the oil companies are expecting the US taxpayer to clean up after them.
041721 We STILL HAVE the rundown non-running oil derricks in California, namely Los Angeles city and county that continue to leak and the owners have literally walked away and abandoned the sites. Last I heard the federal and state legal issues are working to get the owners back to the sites and the abandoned wells capped and rigs/derricks removed and the land needs to be cleaned up. Several wells are located in the midst of neighborhoods with the oil leeching into the ground and poisoning the ground and water. And the smell, yuck!!!
The irony in this video is you can see on some of the turbines where the oil has been leaking from the gearbox. Lol
@@samlee1546 A gearbox leak in nothing compared to burning something 100% of the time to make electricity. Stop letting the oil industry distract you from their damage.
@@justsomeguy934 I'm not letting them distract me but you cannot lubricate this thing, smelt the steel in the tower, or make the fiberglass in the blades without hydrocarbons. That's not even counting the amount of concrete that's these things need for the base to hold them up.
I backed out of a Verizon cell tower deal 20 years ago because they were going to leave an enormous concrete piling in the ground when the tower would eventually be removed. This was on a commercial lot and would have prevented constricting a building later.
I see this as much less of an issue if the land will likely be used for grazing, hunting, ATV trail riding, etc into the foreseeable future.
However, as a pilot, I’d sure like to see a blinking red light on each of them!
Not enough energy to keep a blinking light on 24x7, lol
Doesn’t Verizon pay six-figures yearly to rent your plot of land?
I worked at a Hydro plant at Snoqualmie Falls in Washington State built in 1899 and the turbines are still in use today and pretty much every day. So don't tell me that those wind turbines can't be upgraded and still used.
Hey, Supergenius, the technological requirements and wear patterns of hydro ARE NOT THE SAME as a hydro power source. You had zero business in a power plant, clearly.
@@bitcoinconstitutionalist9252 Do you? The company involved in the development and construction of the wind farm just didn't want to bother to upgrade them or apply for grants. The wear patterns for the most part are the same whether a turbine is spun by water or air it just spins the turbine inside and at the end of the day no matter what spins the turbine the wear is the same.
The height and diameter of the wind turbines cannot be upgraded without replacement .... says so in the video.
@@FourDollaRacing You are right on that part I was talking more on the wear of the turbines themselves
@@bitcoinconstitutionalist9252 Did you read your reply before you hit the comment button?
They need to make it so the blades can point upwards. Then you power it and fly it to the junk yard.
Just junk the lot of them now.
I worked for a company that put up a Wi-Fi mesh network for a city. The funding for the project was federal grant money (taxes). The cost was about 1.5 million. In order to complete the mesh, trees had to be trimmed, power had to be installed, antennas had to be aimed, plus the backend monitoring had to be set up. The installation went just great. - Then the maintenance started. Lightning killed a few radios. Traffic accidents and wind took down the poles where the radios were mounted. Normal failures occurred over time. There was no money to maintain the thing. I've seen this same thing occur several times within the 50 or so mile radius of our small community. It's understandable why universities get excited about doing this stuff. They want to study feasibility, longevity, performance, etc. But they can't afford to keep it going. That city Wi-Fi is now a $1,500,000 eyesore. It's non-functional, and never will be again. Just sayin'.
The city I live in did the same thing, free internet for everyone! Within a few years it was gone. Complete waste of tax payers money but someone sold them on the idea and made some big money! And more than likely there was a State or Federal grant behind it.
"No man ever went broke overestimating the ignorance of the American public." ~ P. T. Barnum
and....
"The common man, no matter how sharp and tough, actually enjoys having the wool pulled over his eyes, and makes it easier for the puller." ~ P. T. Barnum
It's not a turban its a turbine. How can you mispronounce it so many times.
It ALWAYS comes down to the money.
Surprised?
Yes, and most of that money is confiscated by the government, which we are forced to pay as taxes.
@@jackfenn7524 "Yes, and most of that money is confiscated by the government, which we are forced to pay as taxes." And you're talking about the trillions in free subsidies that oil gets, right? Or free military escorts for tankers? Or occupying Afghanistan for 30 years? Do you think Exxon gets a bill for that on their desk?
US oil subsidies exceeds US military spending: ruclips.net/video/PUaYHTQZVJE/видео.html
Oil subsidies in trillions of dollars according to the IMF: www.imf.org/~/media/Files/Publications/WP/2019/WPIEA2019089.ashx
And California
Surprised people don't work for free? Not in the slightest.
The question is the cost of putting them up and the cost of taking them down does that justify the amount of power that they have actually produced
NO.
The question is how stringent the laws are. Wyoming won't tolerate big business destroying the land. They have the most stringent reclamation laws in the world. They won't get away with not cleaning up.
@@Johnrob1943 yeah they will tear them down they will take the concrete out of the ground they will reclaim the land back to where it was but all of this crap will go into a landfill so all they are doing is moving the drunk from one place to another
@@jamesgillespie6278 not in Wyoming. In Wyoming, while I was working drilling rigs, if a small patch of oil was on the ground, the company could be fined. The only time the state couldn't go after a company was the company who destroyed an area of Yellowstone, who was out of Canada. Wyoming doesn't go by DC rules, they made their own rules and are pretty strict about enforcing them.
@@jamesgillespie6278 " yeah they will tear them down they will take the concrete out of the ground they will reclaim the land back to where it was but all of this crap will go into a landfill..." You just defeated your own argument! If they reclaim the land, put it back to where it was, we win! Using petroleum uses the air we breathe as a landfill...
Los Angeles clean air comparison: www.businessinsider.com/photos-stay-at-home-order-reduced-los-angeles-notorious-smog-2020-4
Doing maintenance work on turbines was interesting and constant in Tehachapi;years ago when I worked there. Not for the faint of heart in climbing the damn things
Here in south Texas where we have thousands of these the blades wear out and are made of a material that is so dense they are still figuring out a way to get rid of it. There are fields with piles of them just sitting there.
Yes! That notoriously dense material known as fibreglass...
@@gromm93 there's a little more to it than that. The particular "fiberglass" they use to make the turbine blades is an extra high density type which makes it really hard to do anything with it once it's original purpose has been exhausted.
Sounds like a threat to your national security!
@@robertely686 whatever that means. How about you say what you mean instead of replying to some random post with cryptic bullshit. Threat? How is a big pile of fiberglass shit sitting in a field somewhere a threat to "my" national security? Why do you say "your"? Are you not a US citizen? If not, please shut the fuck up
I recall what a great thing that wind farm in SoCal was supposed to be, as I had just graduated high school and applied for a job maintaining those turbines, once up. Ended up maintaining the vehicles used to ferry the work crews to/from the sites. Bit of an eye sore these days, sadly.
What do you expect when these are made in China!
ferry
@@glenbard657Ooops! Thanks for the correction.
Turban! Brilliant.
Sikhs will remove the turbans in their homes
I have a windy turban and boy is it embarrassing.
is that an American thing or just this video????????
@@P.G.Wodelouse Nah, here in America "turbine" rhymes with "line."
@@P.G.Wodelouse no they're saying it wrong
This is great reporting, thank you.
My two cents- oil and gas wells, mines and windmills should be mandated to put the land the way they found it. And how do we make sure they clean up after themselves? Before they start a project, the company has to put so much money in an account that will fund the cleanup afterwards. I'm sure many projects wouldn't get off the ground if they were forced to do this. The reason they aren't cleaning up after themselves- its less money to litigate in the judicial system for years and years than do the right thing and clean up.
The company goes out of business as soon as subsidies stop.
Tim ...you hit the nail on the head when you sais that!
My guess is it is only profitable when our taxes make it profitable thru subsidies.
Don't forget about the tons of concrete in the ground that kept the damn things from blowing over to begin with.
Generally about 300 - 400 tons of cement and steel that will be there FOREVER.
Have a look at the U-tube building a wind turbine, none of them 400 ton foundations will ever be removed.
rebar, too. Crazy amount.
@@justdoesntaddup8620 I saw one. They didn't tell you what it was, at first. It was an obscene amount of concrete and rebar, not worth the damage. They don't even pay for themselves, before they break down.
@@billygunn7180
the other part of that is it’s 400 tons of rock and gravel removed crushed and repositioned away from a river bed or quarry or mountain environment somewhere.
That’s without counting the 300 tons of copper steel and aluminium and paint etc , that all comes from the environment.
@@justdoesntaddup8620 the only reason they allow that is corruption. Politicians get paid off and they give them subsidies. Otherwise, people wouldn't invest in something like that. They don't even pay for themselves, before they break down.
timely information! As photovoltaic is the other branch of renwables, I do wonder how they are going to be cleaned up. Owing to their content of cadmium, which is indestructible and unpleasantly toxic, this needs urgent settlement.
in Australia, the government actually give $800,000 for each wind turbine every year they are running to the companies that put them up. So in the long term it's profitable for companies to build them. The turbine needs power to get them up and running before the wind takes over as well.
Companies that own them declare bankruptcy and leave junk-piles behind. It is a great tradition of business.
Good luck, most are owned by an LLC
@@noelleonard2498 I know that. Companies that obtain licenses for wind turbines should be required to leave escrow deposits sufficient for demolition and remediation.
How about the same for oil and gas? Right crickets. Ohh no a turbine shut down what ever shall we do. Oil spill umm what eves. You hick dumb asses.
That's why we then burn their houses down with them in them.
@@PlayDirtyATV Good Lord Bryant, what are you talking about? - It must be just awful, with all their radioactive waste, oil contaminated ground and ruined aquifers - Oh, hang on a minute, isn't that something else? ^oo^
As a former contractual worker for Westinghouse, I can say, the steam generators have to have their bearings replaced every 2 yrs, and completely rebuilt every 4yrs. I don't see how normal maintenance routines couldn't be carried out on wind turbines. Unless their Govt subsidies run out at 20yrs, and they are no longer profitable.
Well I think your are right.
But who is going to pay for it?
Wind is nowhere near as profitable as the turbines for coal/gas/nuclear power. Economically does not stack up.
We’re going to be stuck, who is the government. You & me.
Don't forget the kickbacks all politicians receive in the cost of
"renewable" energy.
The blades themselves give out due to degradation
In Australia, land owners are slowly waking up to the big con that they have to clean up decrepit turbines, and the costs of that are far more than the rent they received from the private turbine developers. Derrrrr.
So now we have to look at this VISUAL POLLUTION. Of was once a beautiful landscape. 😊
The owner should be required to remove them when decommissioned.
I agree! Decomissioning costs should be included! How about nuclear power plants and oil refineries?
@@justsomeguy934 Privatize the profits, socialize the cleanup.
@@benjamingamble2407 "Privatize the profits, socialize the cleanup." Explain - WHY would society pay to clean up something while the polluter keeps the profits? I say make the users of a good or service PAY the entire cost of that good or service. Don't push the cost of a product on my when I don't use that product.
@@justsomeguy934 Costs of removing defunct turbines is huge, much higher than was originally estimated, and that's why old farms are becoming an eyesore when the developer bails out.
@@portnuefflyer You can repower a turbine tower. You're also not comparing the other costs associated with traditional fuels, nor the pollution and military presence required to escort oil from certain places in the world.
Don’t worry, we the tax payers will take care of it.😉
Decommissioning a wind farm is child's play and costs peanuts when compared to a nuclear powerplant. All gas, oil, nuclear, chemical plants etc. Should have similar bond or an ongoing fund to clean up once the site is decommissioned.
@@davesy6969 I believe nuclear plants have to pay into a fund for decommissioning, might be worth digging into. I agree there should be insurance in place for these things
Got that right, we have all the fossil fuel we need, and we have to look at this joke!!
Just like they do when there's Oil Contamination, Deep Water Horizon anyone 4.9 MILLION Barrels into the Ocean one of the Largest Environmental Disaster in United States History. BP waited a Years and with Conservative Support and Backed by Conservative Placed Judges began Litigating away their responsibility and lowering their Financial responsibility and Letting Taxpayers pick up the Bill. (In BP's Final $20 Billion Gulf Settlement, U.S. Taxpayers Subsidize $15.3 Billion) Forbes article
@@Gcanno I believe that the largest oil spill in history was off the California coast. Look it up. By the way. It was caused by Mother Nature and is leaking to this day.
Ineffective and an eyesore on the landscape!
I was approached several years ago to put wind turbines on Iowa farm land. There was some escrow of funds to decommission the towers. I was concerned about the effects of inflation on both the rent paid and the amount escrowed in 40 years. Also how well would the ground be restored to tillable crop land. Federal regulations might help land owners feel more confident in long term leases to utilities.
And now the solar companies are making the rounds in Iowa. Lots of concerns.
"only sign the Contract that YOUR Lawyer has amended"
@@sheilaanderson321 with toxic cadmium photocells
I don't think there is any problem the federal government can't make worse.
@@1978garfield that's why we all want a small government.
She is a skilled journalist. A real story for a change. Nice. Refreshing. Needed.
I just can't believe this story got out
Just run to failure seriously.
@@andrewkirpy4254 You don't? It's a pro-oil piece, for God's Sake! Of course it got out!
@@justsomeguy934
Lol , how is a story about dismantling a wind farm pro oil , seriously , the green industry need to realise the transparency of their own industry is the first step toward sustainability.
Trying to hide the truth with deception , cover ups and lies so the industry looks better was outdated by the tobacco company’s 70 years ago.
@@justdoesntaddup8620 " how is a story about dismantling a wind farm pro oil , seriously ," You don't see it? The video is a criticism of wind farms - it's highlighting an abandoned wind farm, and all the comments here are shouting "see! renewable energy doesn't work!". That plays right into the hands of oil. Do you possibly think this video is pro-wind? LOL
Wind turbines have huge foundations, very deep into the ground.
Would they really get all the concrete out?
That's a lot of concrete and rebar.
Why would you take that out, topsoil will layer over it and the grass will grow
@@ciaranharrington4141
Maybe in the future they want to build a city, a subway, sewers etc.
Someone will dig in the ground and think "What f*cking moron sell me this property which is now useless to me?".
But maybe they put another turbine on top?
@@scorchedearth1451 then they will burrow through the stuff.
@@Ham549
That is more expensive than digging through the Mount Everest.
@@ciaranharrington4141 it would be like any big rock under the ground.
Wind and solar power plants produce almost no electricity at night, yet their lifespan click keeps ticking.
I live in Massachusetts and I've seen these wind tunnels sitting dead some for many decades. It's a very expensive ordeal to take one of those things down. Many poor places can't afford it. Specially when they fail just a few years after they go up.
Billions wasted. Wait till you see what we do with old electric car batteries.
Did you know what happens to the farting cars?
Meh... ship them to third world countries... along with those old iPhones & broken TVs. Out of sight, out of mind...
Why not replace the old tower with fewer new ones? Have they mined out all the wind in that area? The wiring and transmission lines are already there. It looks like the energy companies make money (tax rebates and rate hikes) by building new instead of upgrading old. Follow the money...
Just not profitable, if it was well maintained as stated, it would be possible to replace for a more efficient wind turbine, bit not efficient enough to have profit.
@@victorzeferino7008 to not a viable argument! Take down old put up new! You were technology more efficient!
You're right "Follow the money."
@@victorzeferino7008 I think the issue is they don't want to spend money redeveloping the site. Otherwise I can't think of a reason why they wouldn't redevelop the site since it's obviously windy enough there to produce electricity.
The wiring won't handle the power of the new windmills and so it would need to be replaced
I am not saying that wind turbines are a bad idea, its just that the current accepted configuration, cost so much in terms of natural resources and pollution in manufacture and servicing , that in the end , they are only just a worthwhile endeavour! There are other greener methods of producing electricity from the wind, or should I say, other future proof wind harnessing designs, that can be updated as generation technology improves. All things mechanical have an operational life, the trick is to conceive a design, whereby the rotating wind turbine/ generator part of the system, can easily be replaced or updated, without requiring the whole structure needing to be replaced. Just for free here, is a simpler idea of capturing the wind; on the ground you have a large rotating turret structure that is free to rotate 360 degrees. Upon that large structure, you mount your wind turbine/ generator set (turbine enclosed in a tunnel) The turbine tunnel is connected to a large funnel and that to a large sail, and all of it, is attached to the rotating turret. The funnel directs the wind down from the sail and into the tunnel with the turbine. The wind is caught in the sails and is funnelled down to the turret, by its unique shape, and funnelled into the tunnel to produce a fast air flow across the turbine. From a resource view point, the rotating turret is placed and tethered to the ground, but can be moved to other locations relatively easily. The sail/ funnel material, plus the turret itself, could be made from a combination of recycled materials. Thus the whole design could be constructed with a fraction of the cost and complexity of the "normally accepted wind turbine" system. Could it produce the same amount of electricity as the accepted WT system?, probably not, it depends upon the scale, however it could be engineered to use far less natural resources and pollution to the environment in its manufacture and operation. Furthermore, the system could be relatively easy to upgrade, because the most complex part, is at ground level! I am sure that any engineer worth his salt, could come up with a handful of alternative design concepts to capture wind energy, and to capture that energy, but not at the cost of the planet, the WTG is trying to save!
In germany, the company is required to put up securites. They only get the permission to build, when the dismantling is already paid up in front.
It's been decades since the idea of "cradle to grave" resposibility was proposed for all manner of consumer products. We're still letting business reap unencumbered profit from turning raw materials into waste and pollution. Indeed the shorter the cycle, the higher the return.
Well, it is basically impossible to build new turbines in Germany anyway, thanks to massive nimby-ism.
"you have to realize with clean energy, its not free from environmental impact" that is the last thing they said...That is the first thing we need to look at...sounds like Pelosi saying 'lets pass this Bill so we can find out what's in it'....pretty dumb!
Coal is 150 year old technology
Nope
@David Erickson oil industry is filthy and full of disasters everywhere...platform spills, tanker accidents, well fires, refinery fires, pipeline spills, fracking, ground water contamination, etc, etc, etc
@@donsturtevant2396 you might want to look up the toxic waste your green energy actually produces. Why do you think these wind turbines never reach their designed lifespan. Not to mention the wildlife they kill. Funny how people belive what they want without actually checking for themselves. Look up rare earth production and why most countries don't want to mine these necessary resources in their backyard.
@@jamesborden9343 "nope" does not make a good debate
anyone who's ever driven I10 through palm springs can see about half the windmills are derelict... they just get left out there to rust...
No, often wind turbines don't turn because they don't need the energy. Unless the local grid has storage, they don't put wear on the turbine if there's no place for the energy to go.
@@justsomeguy934 the ones that dont turn seem to be burned out on the video i saw
@@Withnail1969 I drive by a wind farm fairly often, there's one in my state (as well as a solar farm). I've never seen a turbine abandoned or burned out. Clearly the ones in the video have been abandoned. The video is showing a farm not used anymore, just like oil derricks and pump jacks sit abandoned. The wind farm near me has hundreds of turbines and they're always turning when I drive by.
@@justsomeguy934 well here in the Uk there are plenty that don't work. but of course you're a paid shill for green energy, i've seen your posts all over on comments sections. like i say, the turbines that dont work were burned out on the video i saw. they dont turn because they are broken, not because the power company is randomly 'turning them off', is my conclusion.
@@Withnail1969 "dont turn because they are broken, not because the power company is randomly 'turning them off', is my conclusion." Your conclusion is wrong; the grid has no storage for the most part, The turbines are turned off when their energy is not needed to save wear and tear, just like any other generator. Your local utility goes through *tremendous* variability of energy demand during the day. They turn on and off certain energy generators to meet demand. Wind turbines are just another source they can turn off.
These wind farms have a massive environmental footprint.
I watched to the end just waiting to see these next level energy producing head wraps that kept being mentioned
I worked for a power company for 38 years before that I worked on a hydroelectric dam as an electrician. We could buy power off the grid for less than 7 cents a kwh, but President Obama's new rule mandated we purchase solar and wind power. We had to pay $2.00 per kwh, even if we did not want the power. Then the installers asked if the power company would like to purchase the wind and solar stations and the answer was no. Even the big tall wind generators have a useful life, maintenance cost are extremely high. Solar panels are shot after 10 to 15 years due to sandblasting the panels from the dust and dirt along with the wind. If we had high-voltage storage batteries where we could store this energy and bring it on as needed, that would be a big benefit. Yep, the only ones who make money is the manufacturer and installer. No one else.
Pepperidge Farm remembers. :)
Might be a little foggy on some of that. The Tax Credit feed-in Tariff for Big Wind was 2.2 cents per kWh.
And Solar is not "shot" in 10 to 15 years. Have you ever actually touched any where that was the case? Standard warranties are now 25 years.
Anyway -- it is 2018. Big Hydro is still the cheap existing operation -- but the Dam Sites are about maxed out. Now New Solar PV is the Cheapest, Fastest, Cleanest and least Risk New Generation source.
What Dam Site(s) did you work? I have worked on a few. Updates on old equipment and controls. Actually sort of fun. Grand Coulee was the biggest.
James Gardner
Thanks for that.
And stone boats would fail also. Also square wheels. Some designs are just plain stupid, and modern wind turbines are created to fail, so they can never compete with hydroelectric, and oil, and gas, and coal, and Nuclear electrical generators. "Dutch windmills" pumped BILLIONS of gallons of water, and created hundreds of thousands of acres of farm land in Holland. Dutch windmills, with large sails, would generate plenty of electricity at low cost. That is why they will never be allowed to be constructed.
@@jackfenn7524 you literally watching a video on the modern 'dutch windmills' you just assume the big sails make them better or more efficient, but not to generate power the way they are trying to do with turbines. Also plenty of agriculture use for wind power, up until well electricity, because of reliability there still some wind powered water pumps kicking around out in rural US. They fail, because we want to take that energy locally bottle it up and transmit it far distances. A dutch windmill sails will rip, or unattended it would spin freely and bust into pieces. We created a great unattended remote solution to transmit the power only once usable on-site by a 'dutch windmill'.
Arizona Central Arizona Project just signed a 20-year power purchase agreement with AZ Solar for a solar farm that will sell power for 2.49 cents per kilowatt-hour.The lowest in the country. and Wind generators pay back all energy to produce them in 6 to 8 months of their 30 year avg life span.
What an eyesore to a beautiful landscape, nobody ever seems to mention that.
they kill birds, enuff said
I feel the same way about the oil refineries and open pit mines. Buildings and cats kill way way more birds.
@@boathemian7694 Windmills kill over 1 million migratory birds and birds of prey each year while making millions of acres ugly and not useful for farming the vegetables you love to eat. Cat people like your self need to keep your little bird killers indoors in your underground apartments and houses. Be part of the solution and not part of the problem
@@MA_808 I'd like to see the source for your "over 1 million migratory birds and birds of prey each year" number. Thanks in advance.
@@RechargeableLithium if you were not so lazy you could look it up, stupid. And why would you doubt it unless you were stupid, stupid? So, since you are so stupid, try this on google: birds killed by wind turbines
Nobody is talking about the massive amount of steel and concrete in the base in the ground to hold those bloody ugly things up properly.
But the energy is free we keep getting told, how could it not be profitable?
Wow! this is so wrong. I worked in the drilling, and exploration for the petroleum industry, and right after the oil company finished drilling on federal, state, or private property; we had to put that land back to its original condition.
Just like the old saying, If B.S. was energy,Biden, Pelosi and others would be powerhouses!!!! A study was done on the wind towers, and it cost more to maintain them than what they are worth.Just more propaganda. The climate changing is a natural occurance but many want to ignore the truth.We have learned how to reclaim lands that are mined.
Should be the environmentalists job. They were the ones who pushed this stupid idea..
Wrong THE DEEP STATE encourages stupid people to believe that this is the future while ripping all the tax payers oofff and that make you feel guilty for turning on a light switch
I notice how they simply glossed over and ignored the issues.
A few points.
Wind turbine blades last between 5 to 10 years before they have to be replaced. So each of the turbines shown has had between 3 and 9 blades replaced to date. So far all old blades are either stacked somewhere or buried as there is no way to actually recycle them. There is a company that touts its grand ability to recycle them, but they really are just repurposing one or two blades a month into things that can be made by just cutting them into pieces. Like a artsy bus stop roof.
They always make statement about maximum rating for power produced. They never actually discussed actual power produced compared to steady and stable output. 1500kW sounds like a lot, until you compare it to actual demand. Like many technologies that have been deployed before they actually achieved viability, wind power has “poisoned the well” for its brand of renewable energy. If you actually look at windfarms you will notice that number of active producing towers is far less than the number of towers that are basically “off” and just occupying space. The people and companies that built them will not admit it is a failed experiment because of fear of public backlash propped up by decades of propaganda.
Before we “build more wind power”, how about we properly dispose if the thousands of old blades just dumped out there. Thousands in the US. I have no idea how many are worldwide.
If they want to make things better, instead of pushing alternatives with very limited outcome. By limited I mean all of the sources such as wind and solar are not steady and reliable requiring some process to convert intermittent to constant so it can actually be used. Or batteries. Every “renewable” system revolves around a way to store the energy and then release it in a usable form. Why don't they move on to other possibilities?
But why do we not hear more about solutions like the ones the Canadian clean energy company Huron Clean Energy and its partner Carbon Engineering Ltd. are spearheading. In short they are making “fuel” that can be burned in a regular car engine (no modifications required) that is made by sucking carbon out of the air and converting it into fuel. The exhaust is 90% cleaner than any current engine (diesel, gas, etc.) and comes from the carbon already in the air. They, and a few other companies around the world have successfully completed every small and medium scale test, including powering their own vehicles for several years. In Canada the government is blocking any large scale testing for reasons no on can figure out. Except maybe they have invested so much in renewable dead ends that they want to bury anything inconvenient. The sad thing is that IF the carbon fuel can translate into the large scale. It would be viable and transparent alternative that can use the existing infrastructure and vehicles without modification.
Remember, it is not about coming up with a solution. It is about maintaining political power or ensuring the lucrative government grants. Because once you actually create the alternative that meets the actual needs, that infusion of cash will end.
When they ask that Professor Bumpity from the University of Bumpity to speak, his #1 objective to slowly feed out just enough line to keep you hooked while ensuring nothing ever actually gets resolved. Once they answer the question they are being paid to search for the money ends along with that cushy job position.
Looking through the RUclips videos for the one that described the composition of the blades, and how the blades could not be recycled.. Also, the amount of space the blades required in a “dump”.
It's not that the materials cannot be recycled, it's usually because it's not economically sensible to do so, just as with your own daily contributions to landfill.
How much of a coal power station is reused? How about an oil powered power station? Or Nuclear? Don’t believe what they tell you when it’s shown in isolation.
Blades are a massive ring of steel with many drilled holes? The rest depending on age is either fiberglass/ epoxy, or some newer ones. Carbon/ epoxy resins. Only the steel could be recycled. But you would have to separate it from the fiberglass. And that would cost more then the scrap steel is worth. The copper in generators would be recycled.
5:24_ How can you call it "Renewable Energy" if it doesn't produce energy any more?
It never was a renewable power source
@@rogergibbs2937 "It never was a renewable power source" Um, sunshine and wind are free and happen all the time where I live. Oil? Not so much.
Did the sun not come up today where you live? It did where I am.
@@justsomeguy934 It is the night here, so what if the sun does come up in the morning, it will disappear 12 hrs later. What is your point?
@@rogergibbs2937 The point is the sun will rise today, and can provide free energy when humans want it the most - daytime. That's reliable. It may be intermittent, but it's reliable. Your had your terms incorrect.
The old base cannot be reused for a taller Tower because it's not designed for a taller Tower. The wind will just blow it out of the ground.
That was a good video and informative. Thank you for sharing.
It said nothing
West Virginia copper thieves wonder how much copper is in a wind turbine.
A lot. But much harder to get... plus running ones are energized.
hah I'm sure the meth heads here in GA are wondering the same thing
unscreww the bolts at the bottem wait for a good wind and collect
Arkansas wants to know too.
A Nihtgenga The humanoids here in Indiana would need to know aswell
Wasn't it T Boone Pickens that was so for these? Now he's dead and land destruction and waste from the windmill bone yards.
Windmills are guaranteed for 25 years, they last ten, companies that made them file bankruptcy in 5. POLITICIANS GETTING RICH ON WIND FARMS - THAT LASTS FOREVER
@@fladave99 "Windmills are guaranteed for 25 years, they last ten" Prove your statement, please.
T boone Pickins had a plan for natural gas. He wanted to run natural gas hybrid vehicles this country did nothing about it
Oh I'm sorry Biden shutdown the pipe line and killed the natural gas fields we have
@@davidmoore2601 "Oh I'm sorry Biden shutdown the pipe line and killed the natural gas fields we have" Biden killed the pipeline, I don't know about NG sources.
I thought the Green deal was suppose to leave no footprint and impact. LOL!
I didn't know a Turban could generate so much energy makes sense why some people in the middle east explode.
"Renewable Energy is not free from impact". Cute.
True though.
@@jluvs2ride don't offend captain planet. He might get triggered lol
Cute comment, sweetheart.
I work in the rail sector and some of our biggest clients are from the mining industry. There has been an increase in mining for minerals used to make renewable & green technologies; copper, iron, aluminium, silica, lithium, and even natural gas & smelter-grade coal.
@@jonathantan2469 Yet only 1/3 of aluminum is recycled. I wonder why that is.
But, our politicians think that the energy is now "Green" and "free" once the turbine is up and running.
"Green" only if turbines last, in office, as long as politicians.
When government subsidies no longer cover the cost of maintenance and operation. And companies have to start using their profits for those items. Maintenance stops. And then you need to build new modern towers on new land because that raises the subsidies paid by taxpayers who essentially pay for their electricity twice. As anyone who gets their electricity from wind or solar. Has the cost for your electricity ever gone down? And what happens to users of these wind farm electricity when the farms go down. They will tell you nothing. Because we still have gas, oil and coal powered plants. For when the winds don't blow and the sun dose not shine.
I think Land Owners and State Governments should all recognize the Future need of Wind Farm Decommissioning & Environmental Impact. One HUGE red flag, in the creative process would be to recognize the funds allocated. If an Energy Company has received a Grant from the Federal or State Government for the Creation of a Wind Farm, then that Company may not initiate ANY cost-planning on the Decommissioning Process. This aspect is SO important for Mayors and Local Leaders to be on top of. I prefer a long-term lease, such as this one in the video, over a land purchase. A land purchase can create a future Wind Farm Graveyard. No Town or Community deserves that. #FoodForThought
Without reading all the comments that have come before me a good point to remember is this, no matter what happens with these older wind farms, the consumer is going to pay. Many people think that this is free energy because the wind is free don’t kid yourself.
In less than 20 years for technology will have moved again and the ones there a wreck in today will be obsolete, the consumer will pay for that as well.
There actually is a home atomic energy solution!
YT, indeed, the 'word' TANSTAAFL comes to mind.
............................. There Aint No Such Thing As A Free Lunch.
Eeeh yeah, want did you really want to say??, like there is a energy source that is free or what?
Kind of like cars?
nobody said wind energy is free. Nothing is free. It just so happens that it's a very clean source of low cost energy.
Wind turbines - destroying the natural aesthetic beauty of the land! What utter lunacy!
come live in an oilfield .what aesthetic beauty LOL. plus you have flares lighting up the night sky.
@@erniew5805 'come live in an oilfield?' I guess in correct English that means
"come AND live in an oilfield". The word "and" is a conjunction - it's used to join parts of sentences together. See ya'. I have no more time for English language semi-literates such as yourself.
@@tombradshaw5164 " I have no more time for English language semi-literates such as yourself." Have nothing better to do but play grammar police? Shallow life, please visit Reddit, you'll have lots of fun there. When you want to discuss the topic of the video, put your dictionary back down and come back.
There is no better example of natural and aesthetic landscape as Chernobyl. 10,000 years of long experiments of effects of isotope decay on human and animal body. You are a moron!
Who cleans up all the birds that are killed by the blades?
Whelan the wrecker - Australia's most famous building destructor. His signs were writ large wherever he worked.
Gonna suck when the coming hyperinflation makes all of those cleanup bonds become totally worthless. Granted we will have MUCH bigger problems to deal with at that time, but it is certainly something these planners never consider when they establish their rules.
that's what I was thinking
You don't understand G-O bonds.
@@MrShobar ANY bond denominated in dollars would become virtually worthless in an environment of hyperinflation.
Who would’ve guessed Wyoming would have so many Turbans! 😉
Lol I was thinking the same thing!
There are far more than you think. The government will import them and pay for them to live right next door to you.
What folks don't see is the 50 ton or more blob of concrete that is under these things, it goes down about 15' and is about 50' across, it may have grass on the surface but probably not. Also there is a network of utility conduit tunnels connecting things together, somebody's gotta make sure they fill all this up with CLEAN dirt, not recycled garbage.
I’ve never heard turbine pronounced the same as turban before. It’s an interesting difference.
she didn't look up the pronounciation in google. so sad.
Reminds me of all the Oil Well Pump Jack abandon and not running by the hundreds and maybe thousands I have seen.
Hundreds of thousands.we were “finding” forgotten, abandoned wells and pipelines in Louisiana, usually because of the ecological damage they cause when they fail.
10's of thousands in Texas alone.
Hmm wind turbines last 15-20 years. Oil Wells last 50-75 years. No brainer to me.
The utility looses the revenue while the wind is blowing but needs to maintain capacity to supply consumers power when the wind is not blowing. Decreased revenue while maintaining capacity is a recipe for failure. Texas found out that having 25% of their generation capacity that was not 100% reliable was a disaster.
You have to realize that there are usually governement incentive like guaranted price for the electricity in order to persuade private companies to make the investment in wind energy. But those incentives usually have a duration limit. When the duration ends, operating the wind turbine is not profitable anymore alone. So they are usually abandoned or dismounted. If they are modernized, it is only because it is possible to gain another 15 or 20 years of public money incentive. When they say replacement with a new field is impossible it is usually because the criteria for the field authorisation have changed (size, distance to habitations, ...) thus this field is no more eligible to public money.
If the “wind” isn’t blowing, it doesn’t exist! Wind is air movement, if the air isn’t moving, guess what, no wind.
and she can't spell turbine 🤣
They build them in windy places....
@@amyrichard3203 And your point is?
the problem is, We can not expect a large company to tell the truth any more.. that is why the laws are so ambiguous and hard to understand. because no matter what a companies word is not good anymore.. it is expected they will say one thing and do another.. You cannot legislate morality! either they are honest and should stay in business or dishonest and should be shut down.. But that would mean we would need honest politicians.. You see the spirol were in.. all we the people can do is hold on and hope the crash isn't to bad..
And you think you can trust the government to tell the truth? They will lie more than any private corporation.
@@Norm475 there one and the same any more Norm.. But then you knew that.. All I can say is I am glad I am old and my kids don't know any better..
@@tinkmarshino I know exactly what you mean. I will be 79 in June and sometimes I talk to friends about where this country is heading and I tell them I will welcome death when it comes. I really don't want to die because for an old guy I am not in too bad of shape. I don't know how people can think we can keep running up trillion-dollar deficits and there will not be a reckoning. Good luck to you.
@@Norm475 I am with you brother 70 next month.. I don't mind death.. like you I welcome it .. my heart can't take much more of this corruption.. Carry on my brother.. see ya on the other side!
Never could hell the RR's and oil co. have been trashing the land since they started.
They aren’t reusable. They are being buried in Wyoming wilderness so eventually they are open on ground stacked. Possibly covered with dirt now. The blades don’t deteriorate. A LAND FILL
Fun fact.
It takes on average 38 years for a wind turbine to reach carbon neutral. The largest contributing factor is the massive amount of concrete required for their foundation.
That's double the generous lifespan estimate. This would only make sense to a liberal.
Source please. Complete fabrication.
@@paulogden7417 Bear Independent channel who spent about a decade installing the wind turbines across America. He would know more about wind turbines than your propaganda sources would.
I have a buddy who’ll take every opportunity to trash talk the oil platforms along the gulf coast but can drive through 100 miles of windmills in the Texas panhandle and Oklahoma without saying a word.
Because like every ecological hawker, everybody else is wrong .Virtuous in their minds, kinda like the war criminal Obama never did anything wrong. Bernie , Obama, Richard Stengel, John Holdren and the Eco ilk..... are Bugs, Hyenas, snakes exclaiming good is bad and bad is good.
Imagine that. Xcel Energy, the company in CO who has bought and paid for the Public Utilities Commission. This land owner will get screwed.
Oh, and drove by there about two weeks ago, and it's still there.
Is it still there in 2021?
And they now have UN international laws in place for imminent domain that they can take your land if it will generate more tax revenue. So they can just take your land and do this.
And thanx Obummer Biden they can build a hideous tower apartment complex bring in illegals and alter your voting district while taxing you to pay for it.
So nosey
@@whereswaldo5740 Waldo is a Moron
@@SlayerofFiction And a speaker of truth. These things I stated are all fact. Jack.
Lol I was like hmm seems like a hard problem but then they brought up bonds and was like wow that's actually a pretty good solution.
7yrs after the video was posted.
did they clean up everything at that decommissioned windfarm?
those things are eyesores
As to your question of who cleans up wind farms? The answer is,, the same people who paid to install it ...
THE TAXPAYERS!!!
The tax payers, or the rate payers? I don't know.
Exactly. Who cleans up when a wind farm retires? Well, the taxpayers and consumers usually end up paying for it, while the manufacturers clean up (straight to the bank).
@@dwightstewart7181In the beginning, that was an unrecognized problem. Now days, you have to present a land reclamation plan in place, for the eventual decommissioning of the site. That holds true for wind, solar, nuclear, natural gas or coal. Not only the generating sites, but also the mining sites. The mining company is now responsible for clean up, once the mine is depleted and the site decommissioned. Wind and solar don't pollute. Knock em down, haul em out. there isn't the cleanup of pollutants that you would have with any mine, oil derrick or coal power station. Natural gas isn't quite so bad, and even nuclear is an easier clean up than coal, or even oil. That has to be in place, before anything can be built. Now, we've got to deal with the first sites, which were in place before the reclamation laws.
So, the same as with an oil spill then? But with much less damage done...?
@@foxy7558 Since we don't produce much if any electrical power with oil, so your question as couched has very little to no relevance to the subject at hand.
Natural gas, coal, hydro-electric, nuclear, and solar, are the primary sources with solar and wind turning out to be somewhat dismal failures, I am sure that in the future wind and solar will have made sufficient advances in technology as to be viable and efficient options.
But, their nowhere close now, nor do I see it anytime in the near future.
Why don't they plant Wisteria at the base of these towers.. This would eventually take over an break down the tower.
Funny this video is 7 years old at this point of time and weird that most don't think that wind turbines have flaws in the long run but here we are with green energy ideas that barely work.
a nuclear reactor can take 40 years to decommission. The cost of this small windfarm coming down is a drop in the bucket compared to the cost of nuclear.
Nailed it. I would include the cost and pollution that comes with decommissioning a coal plant and natural gas plant is a lot more, but a wind farm is manageable because there really isn't any toxic chemicals to clean and scrub.
And a nuclear plant will generate power 24/7 365-1/4 days a year for decades, only going down for maintenance. You also don't need to build significantly more generating capacity than the grid requires, hoping to balance variable production with fairly consistent patterns of demand - or build grid level energy storage.
The french have been using breeder reactors for decades, burning up and concentrating their waste fuel rods into newly concentrated and usable ones, resulting in significantly less waste material with shorter half lives to deal with.
@@jdhill770 "The french have been using breeder reactors for decades, burning up and concentrating their waste fuel rods into newly concentrated and usable ones, resulting in significantly less waste material with shorter half lives to deal with." Great, I'll tell the Fukishima residents that they have nothing to worry about. I think the mail from Fukishima is being routed through Chernobyl...
Translation: The startup investment money and government grants have dried up.
Thank God as none of them are actually any better than bird killers as well as disturbing any wild life near them .
@@joewilson2258 - Birds are evil. Chop them all to cole slaw LOL
Behold the blade of the Grim Reaper !
It slices it dices and makes mountains of cole slaw.
@@joewilson2258 Compared to buildings? Cats? There are some great infographics showing the numbers of birds killed by cats is about 2 billion a year.
As a windmill ages, it gets more expensive to maintain & replace parts, especially when they are spread out & in remote locations. The more recent models generate more power per structure. So, when the cost of servicing them exceeds the revenue generated, they get shut down.
Turban: A man's headdress, consisting of a long length of cotton or silk wound around a cap or the head, worn especially by Muslims and Sikhs.
Turbine (TUR-bine): A machine for producing continuous power in which a wheel or rotor, typically fitted with vanes, is made to revolve by a fast-moving flow of water, steam, gas, air, or other fluid.
so basically by the time you add up all the BTUs your spread sheet tells you that the total energy and economic resource cost of wind farms allows you to break even after about 25 years. WHen you are through, you have a pile of undecomposable junk that requires an act of congress and a super fund to get rid of. So the whole process makes perfect sense.
This brings to mind a watermelon that is green on the surface, hiding the red inside, and often very seedy.
This is the case with biofuels. 30 years ago, we were told that green sustainable biofuels from corn, sugarcane, and palm oil will replace oil & gas completely by the 2010s. Now we know that countless hectares of ancient rainforests in the Amazons & Asia are being chopped down to plnt sugarcane & palm oil...
@@jonathantan2469 No matter what we use the Earth gets abused and certain people still make big $$$.
Think about all the abandoned gas and oil wells. They need to have bonding and similar restrictions.
No because like it or not the oil is going to be used . Manufacturing, agriculture, construction all depend on oil and lots of it. 90 percent of modern life revolves around oil.
I was told by somebody in the wind, turbine business, that most of that crap is not even recyclable
I wonder what deal they cut with the state to avoid the cleanup. Some of these companies got sweet deals from states that wanted to show they were business friendly.
Personally, they should leave a few if they are in public areas. They could be great recreation points. Repelling, sight seeing, etc.
Who cleans up when millions of gallons of Oil are spilled