Why Are Wind Turbines Not Good For The Environment?
Fossil fuel use in manufacturing
Producing wind turbine parts requires mining and smelting using fossil fuels. According to research, each wind turbine embodies a whole lot of petrochemicals and fossil-fuel energy. The production process involves extracting and processing metals like steel, copper, aluminum and rare earth elements. This heavy industrial mining and manufacturing uses fossil fuels. So while wind turbines generate renewable energy, their components require the very fossil fuels they aim to replace.
Habitat Disruption
One negative impact of wind turbines is the habitat disruption they cause during construction and operation. Building wind farms requires clearing land to construct access roads, turbine foundations, transmission infrastructure, and more. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, this infrastructure fragments habitats and disrupts ecosystem connectivity.
Fragmented habitats make it more difficult for wildlife to find food, shelter, and mates. Animals may avoid areas near turbines and access roads due to increased noise and human activity during construction and operation. Fragmentation can also enable invasive species to colonize new areas and disrupt delicate plant communities.
In addition, the roads built for wind projects open up areas that were previously inaccessible to humans. This can increase illegal hunting, recreational use, and other human disturbances that degrade habitats over time.
Bird and Bat Mortality
Wind turbines can kill birds and bats that collide with the rotating blades. According to a fact sheet from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, wind turbines may negatively impact birds and bats that use the area for nesting, foraging, roosting, and migration stopover1. The impacts include direct mortality from collisions as well as indirect impacts like habitat loss and fragmentation.
However, research shows the number of bird and bat deaths is relatively low compared to other human-related causes. A 2012 study found that wind projects kill around 0.269 birds per gigawatt-hour of electricity produced, compared to 5.18 birds per gigawatt-hour from fossil fuel power plants2. Proper siting and operation can help minimize bird and bat impacts.
Noise pollution
Wind turbines produce mechanical noise from the generator and aerodynamic noise from the blades moving through the air. This noise can disturb local residents, with complaints about “whooshing” and “thumping” sounds. Studies show turbine noise is generally 30-45 decibels at a distance of 300 meters, comparable to a library (https://windexchange.energy.gov/projects/sound). The noise is often considered more annoying than other sources at the same volume due to its repetitive nature and nighttime occurrence when background noise is low (https://www.maine.gov/dacf/lupc/projects/windpower/redington/redingtonrevised/Documents/Section05_Sound/AWEA_Turbine_Noise_FAQ.pdf). Some people living near wind farms have reported sleep disturbances and other health effects from the noise. Wildlife like birds and bats can also be impacted by the turbine noise interfering with communication and orientation abilities. Proper siting and setback distances from homes are necessary to reduce noise impacts on nearby residents and animals.
Visual pollution
Many people find wind turbines unappealing and consider them a visual blight on the landscape. The height of modern wind turbines, which can stand over 300 feet tall, makes them highly visible across long distances. Some argue they distract from natural scenery and ruin the aesthetics of the environment, especially in scenic or wilderness areas.
According to one report, “For some, lofty, white turbines represent progress, safety, cleanliness. For others, they are a blight on nature and symbol of the industrialization of rural areas” (https://nexusmedianews.com/the-aesthetics-of-wind-energy-7a610c1e5b0a/). There are ongoing debates about wind turbine placement and whether their visual impact can be mitigated.
However, some argue wind farms can have an aesthetically pleasing effect if designed properly, choosing colors, shapes, and heights that blend into the landscape. But this does not completely eliminate their high visibility and the fact that some view them as marring natural scenery.
Use of rare earth metals
Wind turbines rely heavily on neodymium magnets in their generators and gearboxes, which use rare earth metals like neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium. According to research from the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre [1], a wind turbine uses about a ton of these four rare earth metals. Mining rare earth metals can have environmental impacts, and many known deposits are concentrated in China, raising supply chain issues.
Intermittency
One of the main drawbacks of wind power is that it is intermittent and unreliable. Wind speeds fluctuate constantly, meaning wind turbines do not generate a steady output of electricity. According to https://energyeducation.ca/encyclopedia/Intermittent_electricity, wind power is considered highly intermittent because its electrical output depends on variable wind speeds.
The intermittency of wind power causes issues for grid operators who rely on steady, predictable electricity generation to match supply with demand. As noted by https://www.bpa.gov/energy-and-services/efficiency/demand-response/intermittent-renewable-energy, wind and solar resources are not constantly available, so they are referred to as intermittent renewable energy sources.
Intermittent renewable energy like wind and solar present unique challenges for integrating them into the electric grid, as explained in https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/plugged-in/renewable-energy-intermittency-explained-challenges-solutions-and-opportunities/. Their variability disrupts conventional grid planning and operations.
In summary, the inherent unreliability of wind power due to fluctuations in wind makes it an intermittent energy source unsuitable for providing steady, reliable electricity generation.
High cost
While the cost of wind power has decreased dramatically in recent years, it still relies heavily on government subsidies to remain economically viable compared to traditional energy sources like coal and natural gas. According to a 2016 analysis by Lazard, an unsubsidized wind farm producing electricity at 5.9 cents per kWh would need to be 51 MW in size just to equal the cost efficiency of a 3 MW coal plant generating electricity at 3.6 cents per kWh (Comparative Cost Of Wind And Other Energy Sources). This is due to the high upfront capital costs of constructing utility-scale wind farms.
The levelized cost of electricity from new wind power projects is estimated to be $37 per MWh in 2019, according to EIA data. This is less expensive than building new coal ($102/MWh) or nuclear ($112/MWh) plants, but more costly than new natural gas combined cycle plants ($44/MWh). Without subsidies like the federal production tax credit, wind would likely not be cost competitive with other sources of electricity generation in many parts of the U.S. (EIA 2019 data).
Inefficiency
One of the biggest drawbacks of wind turbines is that they only generate power part of the time. The ratio of the actual power output over a period of time compared to its potential maximum power output is called the capacity factor. According to the Center for Sustainable Systems, the average capacity factor for wind turbines in the U.S. is around 35% 1. This means that wind turbines produce electricity about 35% of the time on average. The main reason for this inefficiency is the intermittent nature of wind. When the wind isn’t blowing within the proper speed range, the turbines don’t spin and no power is generated. This intermittency issue makes wind power less reliable than sources like natural gas or nuclear that can provide constant power.
Conclusion
In conclusion, while wind power offers some environmental benefits over fossil fuel-based energy production, it also has notable environmental costs and drawbacks. Wind turbines require fossil fuels for their manufacturing and maintenance. They disrupt natural habitats, threaten wildlife like birds and bats through collisions, and create noise and visual pollution. The turbines rely on rare earth metals mined in environmentally damaging ways. Wind power is also intermittent and inefficient compared to traditional energy sources. While no energy solution is perfect, the environmental trade-offs of large-scale wind power development should be carefully evaluated rather than assumed to be net beneficial.
