231
votes
Accepted
Do wind turbines consume more energy than they produce in a lifetime?
The Guardian cites a 2010 study that found:
the average windfarm [sic] produces 20-25 times more energy during its operational life than was used to construct and install its turbines. It also ...
tim♦
- 51.4k
67
votes
Did wind and solar exceed expected power delivery during Winter Storm Uri?
Wind production exceeded all forecast metrics, solar production exceeded short-term forecasts but not operational forecasts.
TL;DR: On 2/15 both solar and wind exceeded the short term forecasts which ...
- 9,911
38
votes
Accepted
Did the wind power industry produce more radioactive waste than nuclear power plants?
While the numbers provided by the sources seem to be strictly correct, they are lacking a significant amount of context. Once this context is injected into the discussion, the manufacture of Wind ...
- 22.3k
38
votes
Accepted
Did wind power supply less than half a percent of global energy in 2014?
Yes.
They refer to International Energy Agency's 2016 Key Renewable Trends report, which contains these 2 graphs:
Combining these two graphs shows that Wind energy is 3.3% of the 13.8% of the ...
- 3,846
32
votes
Accepted
Are there 14,000 abandoned wind turbines in the USA?
The origin of this claim is Andrew Walden's 2010 article Wind Energy's Ghosts.
He is specifically referring to the wind turbines installed in California between 1981 and 1986 in three locations: ...
- 104k
29
votes
Did wind power supply less than half a percent of global energy in 2014?
NO, (or YES dependent on the definition of primary energy) as answer to the claim: "Wind power does not account for less than half a percent of total global energy usage in 2014."
The wording of the ...
- 431
20
votes
Do wind turbines consume more energy than they produce in a lifetime?
Given there's much talk about the 2010 study, here's a 2013 one. It mainly expand the other one, by:
"Tweaking the lifetime": very low ones were assumed for conventional plants (also including ...
- 332
15
votes
Did the wind power industry produce more radioactive waste than nuclear power plants?
This claim makes one very important and very obvious assumption: That all wind generators use rare earth magnets. Or, for that matter, that they even use permanent magnets at all.
They don't.
From ...
- 1,423
14
votes
Does wind energy cost 2 cents per kwh?
I believe we should start by looking at Figures 53 and 54 from the relevant documents, the 2018 Wind Technologies Market Report, which detail wind power purchase agreement (PPA) prices as they change ...
- 11.1k
13
votes
Accepted
Is offshore wind 9 times cheaper than fossil fuel?
Yes. The Yahoo News article is an accurate reflection of the claims in Carbon Brief, which has appropriate references, provisos and definitions to support its claim, including that it was only true at ...
- 140k
13
votes
Did wind and solar exceed expected power delivery during Winter Storm Uri?
Technically yes, but not in the way you may think.
Here's the data for all electricity generation in the ERCOT grid:
The cold front started coming in on the night of the 8th and you can see how wind ...
- 709
13
votes
Did wind and solar exceed expected power delivery during Winter Storm Uri?
Yes, according to data from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), wind sources greatly exceeded their forecasted production for Monday, while solar sources slightly exceeded their ...
- 11.4k
8
votes
Is over-reliance on wind energy the real reason PG&E is cutting power?
Unsurprisingly, given that it is from the Heartland Institute, it appears to be wrong. Looking at 2018 government data (note: Excel file), electricity generation in California is 30% greater in July (...
- 2,073
7
votes
Is the production of nuclear power very expensive?
The figures seem consistent with most sources:
A Lazard 2018 study puts nuclear firmly in that range.
A UK government study puts new nuclear construction at 95 GBP per megawatt hour, which sits ...
- 2,949
6
votes
Do wind turbines consume more energy than they produce in a lifetime?
The roi depends on the windmill, and it could be bigger than 3-6 months.
For example, if the windmill operates in colder regions, "the additional cost of such a system [de-icing] can be compensated by ...
- 89
5
votes
Is offshore wind 9 times cheaper than fossil fuel?
tl;dr: The original claim is a lot narrower than the Yahoo headline implies, and is making a comparison between future and current prices which may not be justified.
The Yahoo article is reposted in ...
- 8,079
3
votes
Did wind power supply less than half a percent of global energy in 2014?
TL;DR Yes, their are numbers that can be interpreted that way, but it is doubtful that any conclusion can be derived from these numbers.
I would like to expand upon the excellently formatted answer ...
- 198
3
votes
Is offshore wind 9 times cheaper than fossil fuel?
No. This is a common trap when comparing the cost of energy from different sources: these costs are not directly comparable.
As explained in @IMSoP's answer, the actual claim is somewhat different: it ...
- 285
2
votes
Is offshore wind 9 times cheaper than fossil fuel?
Not a direct answer, but interesting for the sake of context. I calculated the per-MWh mean strike price for each of the four rounds of the Contracts for Difference auctions for renewable energy here ...
- 461
2
votes
Is "peak wind" coming?
According to Wind speed reductions by large-scale wind turbine deployments lower turbine efficiencies and set low generation limits Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States ...
- 104k
1
vote
Are wind farms profitable without subsidies?
The answer depends on you definition of subsidies, the energy market and country. As you second link is about Germany my answer will be also about Germany.
If we use a very broad definition of ...
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible