Wind & Solar Power: Real-world Challenges Revealed by Environmental Experts

For those of you who may be aghast at Trump’s actions to stop wind and solar projects, let’s take a closer look at the facts and move beyond industry propaganda.

Wind and solar are NOT the “lowest cost energy,” as promoted by the Green lobby. They only appear to be low cost because of the huge government subsidies (paid for by you, the taxpayer) and because the total costs of renewable energy are typically hidden from the public.

If you look at the total impact of renewables, from mining, manufacture, installation, operation and waste disposal, as well as the destructive impact on our environment and their lack of reliability that destabilizes our grid, supporting expanded solar and wind energy doesn't make sense. The Trump administration is right to stop the projects.

Here are the very real challenges, even disastrous dangers:

• Mining and manufacture take place in “far away” countries, like China, where protection of the environment is not a priority, slave labor can be used, foreign policy can be leveraged and national security can be compromised. Are we good stewards of the earth and our country given these trade offs?

• Providing sufficient capacity to power our country with renewables involves converting huge swaths of our beautiful landscapes into wind and solar installations which require 75-350 times more land per kwh than other energy sources. Why would environmentalists prefer this needless destruction of our environment?

• Because of their inherent intermittency, we must pay for a backup system (batteries, natural gas) to fill in when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine. This means we have to pay to build and maintain a redundant system to be on call everyday, 24/7. It also creates operational complexity that increases management costs. Is this why our electric bills are exploding?

• Wind and solar installations have a waste disposal problem that is rarely ever mentioned. Solar panels contain toxic materials. They last only 20-30 years, cannot be safely disposed of in landfills, and have no economically-feasible recycle plan. Where will we put them? The cost to take down one wind turbine is $100-200K. They are massive structures that cannot be accommodated in typical landfills. Will they be left as skeletons marring our landscapes forever?

• Batteries are not the answer to renewable’s lack of reliability. The battery supply chain is totally dependent on China. They contain toxic and highly flammable components that create even greater disposal problems. When battery facilities spontaneously combust (as they have), the fires are extremely difficult to extinguish and the toxic fumes require extended evacuation of the surrounding areas. Furthermore, once drained, batteries require energy to be re-charged. In extended periods of storms, when wind turbines are turned off to prevent storm damage and the sun doesn’t shine, there is no way to recharge the batteries! Does this mean we have to have two redundant backup systems - batteries and fossil fuel?

• Wind and solar are viable in niche situations and in small quantities on the grid. As the grid becomes saturated with renewables, it becomes more and more unstable leading to brownouts and blackouts like the one that recently happened in Spain. If that blackout happened during a New England winter, how many deaths would we have? National Grid is already warning of “insufficient resources” as more renewables are added to the grid.

• If renewables were the “cheapest and easiest” way to solve our future energy problems, wouldn’t AI companies be choosing wind or solar to meet their future demand? Rather, they are choosing nuclear power and natural gas.

The Trump administration is canceling the renewable subsidies because they are a drain on taxpayers, they encourage further buildout of problematic energy sources that cannot meet the anticipated demand, and their unreliability contributes to instability of the grid and an unacceptable risk to human lives. Thank goodness our President and his administration recognize these untenable attributes of renewables and are encouraging the transition to more reliable energy sources.

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By Marcia Young, a retired biochemist and passionate environmentalist. She is a member of Eco-Nuclear Solutions, a local group of scientists, engineers and environmentalists who advocate for sustainable nuclear power.