Aside from cutting down trees, there are a kit of benefits to solar farms.
However, if you're clear-cutting forests or covering former farm land with solar... I think that's a loosing game in the long run.
I agree with Stella that solar farms are generally better than big whirlygigs in many ways.
The whirlygigs worry me and the deforestation for the sake of green worries me too.
I've also heard that renewables don't provide base line power and have to be replaced while there are other options that have longer life spans and provide base line power.
I also hear that the west are being encouraged to go green but that China, Japan and Korea are back to coal - I stand to be corrected on that though.
No. Those are all correct.
Whirlygigs pose significant threats to the environment in a few ways:
It's nearly impossible to recycle the blades when they break or the rest of the system wears out.
The lubricants used are some of the most toxic substances that are "out in the wild" these days, and are acutely toxic, so, when the gear box leaks, you have that stuff in your water or soil.
Many designs NEED GRID POWER TO FUNCTION! this means that if the grid goes down, they need to have a generator to run or they can't output any power on their own.
The baseline power issue is very hard to overcome without massive energy storage systems. If you aren't in an area that is conducive to pumped hydro, there are not very many ways to store the surplus energy that is typically generated by solar and wind. California has this issue. It's wasteful in different ways. It can destabilize the grid to have too much power input.
China, India, and Japan can't afford to go green if they want to keep expanding their industrial capabilites. China and India know that coal is the cheapest way to generate power, currently. Japan has been trying to eliminate nuclear for decades.
I don't know much about Korea in this context.
This was very interesting, thanks Beave. We go on and on at work about renewables but we aren’t looking at the whole picture. I fear we may be doing just as much damage as before.
I do know that nuclear is a good clean option but the oil industry did the dirty on people and spread FUD about it. Now it’s such a battle to speak about nuclear to most people.
Yup. That's exactly correct.
I read somewhere that they are going to turn these into gummy bears so we can feed them to children. So no need to worry about waste 👀🤦♀️
Yes. That's correct. And weird. And not good.
And quite revolting, but given the state of food globally also hardly surprising. In fact I am surprised we aren’t being influenced to eat more non-food because of “health benefits” from “fake paid for study”
They don't have to, yet. Their plans take shape in decades or centuries. Most don't or can't see that.
