Solar and wind aren’t real power sources, they’re intermittent fuel-savers #USA

As a recent week of winter weather illustrated, solar and wind don’t replace reliable power sources—they just save them fuel, usually at great expense. We’re bombarded with supposed examples of solar/wind rapidly and cheaply replacing fossil fuel power: rapid rises in solar/wind “capacity” or “generation”; solar/wind credited for supplying most of a day’s electricity; stats claiming solar/wind is now cheaper than fossil fuels. Advocates of solar and wind replacing fossil fuel power downplay the obvious, glaring problem that the grid . . .


https://www.wind-watch.org/documents/solar-and-wind-arent-real-power-sources-theyre-intermittent-fuel-savers/

Industrial Wind Energy Quote

“Three characteristics of wind energy — variability, uncertainty and asynchronism — can cause problems for maintaining a reliable and secure power system.” —Windtech International, April/May 2014


https://www.wind-watch.org/quotes.php?t=54

Aerodynamic Wind Turbine Emissions and Vestibulo-Cochlear Coupling: Impulsive Pressure Signatures and Their Health Relevance

Abstract: Wind turbine emissions are commonly interpreted within a classical acoustic framework, extending sound-based concepts into the infrasonic range. This study reframes wind turbine emissions as the result of discrete aerodynamic events rather than harmonic sound generation. Rotor-induced flow modulation produces temporally structured, non-harmonic pressure impulses whose periodic repetition yields spectral components without implying oscillatory behavior. These impulse-dominated signals form characteristic wind turbine emission signatures (WTES). Due to their temporal structure and low-frequency pressure gradients, WTES preferentially interact with the . . .


https://www.wind-watch.org/documents/aerodynamic-wind-turbine-emissions-and-vestibulo-cochlear-coupling-impulsive-pressure-signatures-and-their-health-relevance/

‘Death of Baseload’ and Similar Grid Tropes

Anyone who has spent any amount of time in or near people who are really interested in energy policies will have heard proclamations such as that ‘baseload is dead’ and the sorting of energy sources by parameters like their levelized cost of energy (LCoE) and merit order. Another thing that one may have noticed here is that this is also an area where debates and arguments can get pretty heated. The confusing thing is that depending on where you look, . . .


https://www.wind-watch.org/documents/death-of-baseload-and-similar-grid-tropes/

Cumulative hydrodynamic impacts of offshore wind farms on North Sea currents and surface temperatures #ENG #DEU #NLD

Abstract. Offshore wind farms are increasingly shaping coastal ocean dynamics, yet their cumulative physical impacts remain poorly quantified. Using decade-long, high-resolution simulations of the North Sea, we show that large-scale offshore wind development can reduce current velocities by up to 20% and reshape local tidal energy distributions. Wind and tidal wakes exert distinct but interacting influences on ocean physics: wind speed anomalies drive far-field hydrodynamic impacts, while structure-induced drag intensifies local turbulence and mixing. Turbine spacing emerges as a key . . .


https://www.wind-watch.org/documents/cumulative-hydrodynamic-impacts-of-offshore-wind-farms-on-north-sea-currents-and-surface-temperatures/

Industrial Wind Energy Quote

“Why pursue policies that will immiserate millions and have virtually no impact on the climate? Because, loaded as they are with subsidies for green energy, they offer virtually unlimited opportunities for self-enrichment to those who peddle them.” —Jonathan Lesser, “Hysteria and greed make for expensive energy policies that won’t save the planet”, N.Y. Post, July 27, 2022


https://www.wind-watch.org/quotes.php?t=9

Aerodynamic Wind Turbine Emissions and Vestibulo-Cochlear Coupling: Impulsive Pressure Signatures and Their Health Relevance

Abstract: Wind turbine emissions are commonly interpreted within a classical acoustic framework, extending sound-based concepts into the infrasonic range. This study reframes wind turbine emissions as the result of discrete aerodynamic events rather than harmonic sound generation. Rotor-induced flow modulation produces temporally structured, non-harmonic pressure impulses whose periodic repetition yields spectral components without implying oscillatory behavior. These impulse-dominated signals form characteristic wind turbine emission signatures (WTES). Due to their temporal structure and low-frequency pressure gradients, WTES preferentially interact with the . . .


https://www.wind-watch.org/documents/aerodynamic-wind-turbine-emissions-and-vestibulo-cochlear-coupling-impulsive-pressure-signatures-and-their-health-relevance/

Industrial Wind Energy Quote

“You are going to still have to have coal-fired plants and everything else because people still want to have electricity even when the wind is not blowing.” —Coy Harris, executive director, American Wind Power Center and Museum, Lubbock, Texas, Voice of America, Mar. 10, 2009


https://www.wind-watch.org/quotes.php?t=163

(pic) Shetland

Viking "wind farm" in central Shetland - photo by Angela Grace Irvine


https://www.wind-watch.org/pix/displayimage.php?pid=1048

Industrial Wind Energy Quote

“Before declaring itself bankrupt on 15 September, US investment bank Lehman Brothers was one of several major firms that invested in wind projects in exchange for the tax credit, which they used to reduce their federal tax bill.” —Nature, October 1, 2008


https://www.wind-watch.org/quotes.php?t=125

Corrosion–Fatigue Coupling in Offshore Wind Turbines: The Silent Driver of Structural Risk

Offshore wind turbines operate in one of the most aggressive engineered environments on Earth. Unlike onshore structures dominated primarily by mechanical fatigue, offshore turbines face a persistent electrochemical attack that fundamentally alters how fatigue damage accumulates. Corrosion and fatigue are not independent degradation modes; they are coupled processes that interact at the microstructural level and accelerate structural aging in ways that classical design models often underestimate. As offshore wind farms move into deeper waters, adopt larger monopiles, and target 25–35 . . .


https://www.wind-watch.org/documents/corrosion-fatigue-coupling-in-offshore-wind-turbines-the-silent-driver-of-structural-risk/

Industrial Wind Energy Quote

“That term ‘clean energy’ is just a marketing term. There’s no clean energy. All energy sources involve trade-offs. Solar and wind take over 100 times more land, 10 times more steel and cement and heavy materials to produce. There’s no clean energy; there’s just different trade-offs.” —Chris Wright, U.S. Secretary of Energy, The Hill, April 22, 2025


https://www.wind-watch.org/quotes.php?t=230

Vulnerability of bats in Australia to wind turbine mortality: a trait-based assessment #AUS

Abstract: Wind turbine collisions are a leading cause of bat mortality globally, yet the vulnerability of Australian bat taxa remains poorly understood. Trait-based assessments offer a valuable method for evaluating mortality risk in the absence of data on species- and region-specific turbine interactions. Behavioural and morphological traits are strongly associated with bat fatalities at wind farms globally. Here, we use a trait-based approach to identify the relative vulnerability of bat genera to the increasing threat of wind turbine fatalities in . . .


https://www.wind-watch.org/documents/vulnerability-of-bats-in-australia-to-wind-turbine-mortality-a-trait-based-assessment/

Industrial Wind Energy Quote

“Driving from one end of the country to the other, you see all sorts of strange things, but nothing as ominous as these wind farms that now crowd so many wide open spaces. Gesturing obscenely, they block the horizon, sneering at the very idea that a bit of sky could be sacred.” —Lafayette Lee, Sept. 25, 2024


https://www.wind-watch.org/quotes.php?t=181

Corrosion–Fatigue Coupling in Offshore Wind Turbines: The Silent Driver of Structural Risk

Offshore wind turbines operate in one of the most aggressive engineered environments on Earth. Unlike onshore structures dominated primarily by mechanical fatigue, offshore turbines face a persistent electrochemical attack that fundamentally alters how fatigue damage accumulates. Corrosion and fatigue are not independent degradation modes; they are coupled processes that interact at the microstructural level and accelerate structural aging in ways that classical design models often underestimate. As offshore wind farms move into deeper waters, adopt larger monopiles, and target 25–35 . . .


https://www.wind-watch.org/documents/corrosion-fatigue-coupling-in-offshore-wind-turbines-the-silent-driver-of-structural-risk/

Distribution Models Reveal Important Coastal Habitats for Endangered Leatherback Sea Turtles #USA

ABSTRACT Aim: With the development and operation of offshore wind farms along the United States East Coast, it is imperative that we understand the distributions of vulnerable species so we can track and predict potential interactions. We focused on leatherback sea turtles (Dermochelys coriacea) as they depend on this region for important stages of their life history. Our research aimed to determine leatherback distributions, the environmental predictors associated with them, and how they currently overlap with active areas dedicated to . . .


https://www.wind-watch.org/documents/distribution-models-reveal-important-coastal-habitats-for-endangered-leatherback-sea-turtles/

Industrial Wind Energy Quote

“I don’t believe it is in the state’s interest to industrialize our ridge lines.” —Jim Douglas, Governor, Vt.


https://www.wind-watch.org/quotes.php?t=196

Vulnerability of bats in Australia to wind turbine mortality: a trait-based assessment #AUS

Abstract: Wind turbine collisions are a leading cause of bat mortality globally, yet the vulnerability of Australian bat taxa remains poorly understood. Trait-based assessments offer a valuable method for evaluating mortality risk in the absence of data on species- and region-specific turbine interactions. Behavioural and morphological traits are strongly associated with bat fatalities at wind farms globally. Here, we use a trait-based approach to identify the relative vulnerability of bat genera to the increasing threat of wind turbine fatalities in . . .


https://www.wind-watch.org/documents/vulnerability-of-bats-in-australia-to-wind-turbine-mortality-a-trait-based-assessment/

Industrial Wind Energy Quote

“Faith in the redemptive power of wind energy is not a substitute for analysis of its actual record.” —Eric Rosenbloom, Vt.


https://www.wind-watch.org/quotes.php?t=150

Distribution Models Reveal Important Coastal Habitats for Endangered Leatherback Sea Turtles #USA

ABSTRACT Aim: With the development and operation of offshore wind farms along the United States East Coast, it is imperative that we understand the distributions of vulnerable species so we can track and predict potential interactions. We focused on leatherback sea turtles (Dermochelys coriacea) as they depend on this region for important stages of their life history. Our research aimed to determine leatherback distributions, the environmental predictors associated with them, and how they currently overlap with active areas dedicated to . . .


https://www.wind-watch.org/documents/distribution-models-reveal-important-coastal-habitats-for-endangered-leatherback-sea-turtles/

Warracknabeal Energy Park – EES Submission to Public Review Process #AUS

WMEAP opposes the Development proposed by the Proponent in the EES. The negative impact of this Development on the Warracknabeal region cannot be overstated. The height of the proposed WTGs, are just under the height of Eureka Tower in Melbourne. They are up to 69 metres taller than the 99 wind turbines at the nearby Murra Warra development which is 25km north of Horsham and 4km from the proposed southern boundary of the Development. Putting up to 219 WTGs that . . .


https://www.wind-watch.org/documents/warracknabeal-energy-park-ees-submission-to-public-review-process/

Industrial Wind Energy Quote

“So-called wind farms destroy habitats, not only for birds.” —Niall Williams & Christine Breen, Co. Clare, Ireland, Oct. 22, 2020


https://www.wind-watch.org/quotes.php?t=17

Industrial Wind Energy Quote

“Wind turbines kill a lot of birds, particularly eagles and other raptors.” —Emily Waltz, IEEE Spectrum, May 28, 2025


https://www.wind-watch.org/quotes.php?t=127

Warracknabeal Energy Park – EES Submission to Public Review Process #AUS

WMEAP opposes the Development proposed by the Proponent in the EES. The negative impact of this Development on the Warracknabeal region cannot be overstated. The height of the proposed WTGs, are just under the height of Eureka Tower in Melbourne. They are up to 69 metres taller than the 99 wind turbines at the nearby Murra Warra development which is 25km north of Horsham and 4km from the proposed southern boundary of the Development. Putting up to 219 WTGs that . . .


https://www.wind-watch.org/documents/warracknabeal-energy-park-ees-submission-to-public-review-process/

Industrial Wind Energy Quote

“Green campaigners love wind turbines, but the permanent magnets (in) a 3-megawatt turbine contain some two tons of rare earth.” —Lindsey Hilsum, Independent Television News, PBS News Hour, Dec. 14, 2009


https://www.wind-watch.org/quotes.php?t=43

Industrial Wind Energy Quote

“[Wind and solar] are not alternatives to the energy and ecological crisis, but rather a part of it. They do not “replace” natural gas and fossil fuels, not only because so-called renewable energy is not as potent an energy source as fossil fuel, but also because they rely on fossil fuel for basic operation. They contribute to the abuse, exploitation and plunder of nature.” —Deep Green Resistance


https://www.wind-watch.org/quotes.php?t=12

Industrial Wind Energy Quote

“Wind power is an idea that is appealing to the imagination. It sounds like a ‘free’ source of energy that would be non-polluting and stable in cost. I am an optimist, and I love technology. If I thought for one moment that windmills would be a source of low cost energy, I would be building them. The reality is quite the contrary — wind power is wasteful of human and natural resources.” —Fergus Smith, Vt.


https://www.wind-watch.org/quotes.php?t=194

Impacts of accelerating deployment of offshore windfarms on near-surface climate #DNK #DEU #NLD #GBR

Abstract: The European Union has set the ambitious goal of becoming climate neutral by 2050, which has stimulated renewable energy production and accelerated the deployment of offshore wind energy in the North Sea. Here, a high-resolution regional climate model was used to investigate the impact on the sea surface climate of large-scale offshore wind farms that are proposed for the North Sea. The results show a significant reduction in the air-sea heat fluxes and a local, annual mean net cooling . . .


https://www.wind-watch.org/documents/impacts-of-accelerating-deployment-of-offshore-windfarms-on-near-surface-climate/

Observed onshore precipitation changes after the installation of offshore wind farms #GBR

Abstract: The goal of this study is to assess the extent to which offshore wind farms can inadvertently affect precipitation at nearby onshore locations. As the winds slow down over an offshore wind farm due to the extraction of kinetic energy from the air flow by the turbines, a pattern of convergence upstream and divergence downstream of the farm is formed, which respectively may enhance precipitation offshore and reduce precipitation near the shore. To verify this hypothesis, we used observed . . .


https://www.wind-watch.org/documents/observed-onshore-precipitation-changes-after-the-installation-of-offshore-wind-farms/

Industrial Wind Energy Quote

“You can go 150 miles without losing sight of a wind turbine.” —Greg Wortham, Mayor, Sweetwater, Texas, and Director, Texas Wind Energy Clearinghouse, MSNBC, Dec. 14, 2010


https://www.wind-watch.org/quotes.php?t=84

Industrial Wind Energy Quote

“There’s a lot of trouble with the turbines. You’re repairing and repairing and repairing. By the time you get one fixed, the next one doesn’t work.” —Willy Mortenson, Denmark, Captain, Ocean Cat, New York Times, Jan. 18, 2014


https://www.wind-watch.org/quotes.php?t=90

Industrial Wind Energy Quote

“Why isn’t as much time and effort spent educating and encouraging people to conserve rather than defacing our landscape? ... Long-term benefits like preserving the character of Vermont and energy conservation are more important than short-term solutions that create more problems than they solve.” —Jane FitzGerald, Milton, Vt., Burlington Free Press, May 15, 2009


https://www.wind-watch.org/quotes.php?t=110

Industrial Wind Energy Quote

“If we waste our efforts on symbolic solutions instead of practical ones, we will create bigger problems.” —Andrew K. Gentile, “What’s the cost of banning fossil fuels?”, Vt. Digger, November 16, 2023


https://www.wind-watch.org/quotes.php?t=10

Industrial Wind Energy Quote

“What is so menacing is the regularity and the scope of the noise, which feels like a giant heartbeat shaking the earth.” —Harry Mount, Daily Mail (U.K.), March 10, 2007


https://www.wind-watch.org/quotes.php?t=144

Industrial Wind Energy Quote

“A solution that is meant to solve one problem by creating other problems is not a real solution. Certainly so when the potential of wind energy in Israel is relatively negligible compared to the potential for harm to nature, which is high.” —Tamar Zandberg, Environmental Protection Minister, Israel


https://www.wind-watch.org/quotes.php?t=6

Industrial Wind Energy Quote

“The earth isn’t dying; it is being killed. And “clean energy” will only make things worse.” —Alex, Deep Green Resistance Colorado


https://www.wind-watch.org/quotes.php?t=35

Industrial Wind Energy Quote

“Wind turbines don’t make good neighbors.” —John Zimmerman (Northeast U.S. Representative, Enxco, c. 2004)


https://www.wind-watch.org/quotes.php?t=201

Industrial Wind Energy Quote

“If people tell the public service commission they want all-renewable energy, then we’ll give them that, but not before we warn them that it’s going to cost an arm and a leg.” —Duane Schrader, Louisville Gas & Electric trading manager, “Power Switch,” Carleton College Voice, Fall 2018


https://www.wind-watch.org/quotes.php?t=57

Industrial Wind Energy Quote

“It’s well past time to stop considering what wind might do and to examine what it has done. It has not reduced fossil fuel use or emissions. It has only ruined a lot of landscapes and communities, fragmented habitat, and killed birds and bats.” —Eric Rosenbloom, Vt.


https://www.wind-watch.org/quotes.php?t=148

Industrial Wind Energy Quote

“The mountains and moors, the wild uplands, are to be staked out like vampires in the sun, their chests pierced with rows of five-hundred-foot wind turbines and associated access roads, masts, pylons, and wires.” —Paul Kingsnorth, Orion, Jan./Feb. 2012


https://www.wind-watch.org/quotes.php?t=26

Industrial Wind Energy Quote

“A single 555-megawatt gas-fired power plant in California generates more electricity in a year than do all 13,000 of the state’s wind turbines. The gas-fired plant sits atop a mere 15 acres. The 300-foot-tall windmills impact over a hundred thousand acres to provide expensive, intermittent, insufficient energy.” —L. M. Schwartz


https://www.wind-watch.org/quotes.php?t=207

Industrial Wind Energy Quote

“People have to realize that a 25 percent renewable energy standard by the year 2025 in Illinois amounts to thousands of wind turbines. ” —Joel Link, Invenergy


https://www.wind-watch.org/quotes.php?t=239

Impacts of accelerating deployment of offshore windfarms on near-surface climate #DNK #DEU #NLD #GBR

Abstract: The European Union has set the ambitious goal of becoming climate neutral by 2050, which has stimulated renewable energy production and accelerated the deployment of offshore wind energy in the North Sea. Here, a high-resolution regional climate model was used to investigate the impact on the sea surface climate of large-scale offshore wind farms that are proposed for the North Sea. The results show a significant reduction in the air-sea heat fluxes and a local, annual mean net cooling . . .


https://www.wind-watch.org/documents/impacts-of-accelerating-deployment-of-offshore-windfarms-on-near-surface-climate/

Observed onshore precipitation changes after the installation of offshore wind farms #GBR

Abstract: The goal of this study is to assess the extent to which offshore wind farms can inadvertently affect precipitation at nearby onshore locations. As the winds slow down over an offshore wind farm due to the extraction of kinetic energy from the air flow by the turbines, a pattern of convergence upstream and divergence downstream of the farm is formed, which respectively may enhance precipitation offshore and reduce precipitation near the shore. To verify this hypothesis, we used observed . . .


https://www.wind-watch.org/documents/observed-onshore-precipitation-changes-after-the-installation-of-offshore-wind-farms/

Industrial Wind Energy Quote

“Generally there needs to be quite a bit of blasting, bedrock blasting, and the width of the swath that needs to be cleared to create that road for the cranes that put the turbines in place is fairly wide, and what creates the largest amount of habitat fragmentation.” —Eric Sorenson, community ecologist, Vt. Fish and Wildlife Department, Vt. Public Radio, Nov. 24, 2010


https://www.wind-watch.org/quotes.php?t=131

Impacts of accelerating deployment of offshore windfarms on near-surface climate #DNK #DEU #NLD #GBR

Abstract: The European Union has set the ambitious goal of becoming climate neutral by 2050, which has stimulated renewable energy production and accelerated the deployment of offshore wind energy in the North Sea. Here, a high-resolution regional climate model was used to investigate the impact on the sea surface climate of large-scale offshore wind farms that are proposed for the North Sea. The results show a significant reduction in the air-sea heat fluxes and a local, annual mean net cooling . . .


https://www.wind-watch.org/documents/impacts-of-accelerating-deployment-of-offshore-windfarms-on-near-surface-climate/

Observed onshore precipitation changes after the installation of offshore wind farms #GBR

Abstract: The goal of this study is to assess the extent to which offshore wind farms can inadvertently affect precipitation at nearby onshore locations. As the winds slow down over an offshore wind farm due to the extraction of kinetic energy from the air flow by the turbines, a pattern of convergence upstream and divergence downstream of the farm is formed, which respectively may enhance precipitation offshore and reduce precipitation near the shore. To verify this hypothesis, we used observed . . .


https://www.wind-watch.org/documents/observed-onshore-precipitation-changes-after-the-installation-of-offshore-wind-farms/

Industrial Wind Energy Quote

“The cost of wind isn’t just the wind generator, it’s wind plus gas so you have the capacity there when you need it.” —Dan Dasho, Cloverland Electric Cooperative, Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., Interlochen Public Radio, April 3, 2015


https://www.wind-watch.org/quotes.php?t=13

Petitions to suspend, review, and revoke federal authorizations and ongoing permitting for Alle Catt wind project #NY #USA

PETITION TO IMMEDIATELY SUSPEND, REVIEW AND REVOKE FEDERAL AUTHORIZATIONS AND ONGOING PERMITTING PROCESSES IN CONNECTION WITH THE ALLE-CATT WIND PROJECT IN WESTERN NEW YORK AND TO ADDRESS CONSTITUTIONAL ISSUES Dear Attorney General Bondi, Secretaries Wright and Burgum, Administrators Zeldin and Rocheleau, and Biologist Leput and Physical Scientist Rowley: On behalf of the Coalition of Concerned Citizens, an active party in the state siting proceeding reviewing this wind farm proposal, we hereby submit this letter Petition requesting that your respective agencies . . .


https://www.wind-watch.org/documents/petitions-to-suspend-review-and-revoke-federal-authorizations-and-ongoing-permitting-for-alle-catt-wind-project/

Industrial Wind Energy Quote

“One can certainly concur with concerns about how our culture’s fossil fuel combustion practices help accelerate the process of global warming without uncritically agreeing that the intrusive nature of windpower technology is even a partial solution to the problem.” —Jon Boone, Md.


https://www.wind-watch.org/quotes.php?t=204

Industrial Wind Energy Quote

“There is no way to “un-blast” a ridge.” —Occupy Lowell Mountain


https://www.wind-watch.org/quotes.php?t=34