Places where wind is available are usually not close to population centers, so the grid is extremely important. It will need huge investments in storage also, which simply doesn’t exist now.
Offshore wind become “a thing” about 25 years ago. Denmark and Holland are just about to find out how costly it will be to decommission those first spent windmills at sea, who are now breaking down, and the bases of which weigh 300 tons
Hmmmm. I wonder if disposing of the components will be an issue. Uh, could be.
The size of those turbine blades along is enough to give you pause. No recycling, no enviromentally carbon-neutral impact.......and solar is out. Cooks birds and creates all manner of airborne hazards. Forget nukes. The EnviroNazis have had that covered for decades. Hydroelectric? The Sierra Club has been a legal advocate for the salmon in a thousand court cases. *sigh* I guess it’s back to oil lamps. No, wait........[/sarc]
This past weekend I made a round trip across PA, I make this trip monthly. In and around Cambria county, the mountains are littered with windmills. On Friday heading west, all that I could see were at a dead stop. It was very windy that day and I figured well it must be too much wind for safe operation. On the return trip on Sunday, not noticeably windy, I only saw three turning out of the 20-30 that I could see. I don’t ever recall seeing them at a standstill before. I can understand having a couple down for maintenance at any given time but basically having them all or mostly all idle was odd.