The anti-wind lobby has a video and highlights the coal to build wind turbines with a scary video (below). What they don’t say that it is cannibalism. The 4MW wind turbine would produce 660 times more electricity than the coal used to build the turbine. Further, to get the equivalent electricity from coal over 30 years, would require over a quarter million tonnes of coal burnt. With carbon emissions of 1,000 versus 8 gCO₂e/kWh as discussed in this post on carbon footprint of wind.

Coal to build Wind Turbine

The coal to build a 4MW wind turbine is given below from the anti-wind farm statements. They are factually wrong. They just count the coking coal for iron ore. So the amount of energy is higher than they claim, but that is just the inputs.

• 260t of steel
• 300t of iron ore
• 170t coking coal
• Mined, transported, and manufactured using hydrocarbons.
• Consumes  recycles 10,000 2,600 litres oil. Claim is 10,000 litres but reality is a quarter of that, and fully recycled.
• Buried in forests. Claimed. Most new turbines are fully recyclable.

Coal Electricity

The coal needed to build just one 4MW turbine over its lifetime is repaid more than 50 times over its lifetime

• 1kg coal = 2.5kWh of electricity
• Needs 168,192t of coal for equivalent electricity from wind
• Cost of coal = $13m (@$80/t)
• Life Cycle Analysis Emissions = 1,000gCO₂eq/kWh
• Pollutants: methane, coal ash, mercury, thorium, uranium

Wind Turbine

• 4 MW, 30 year life 
• 40% Capacity Factor
• ∴ Total electricity over lifetime = 420,480 MWh
• 4 to 8 months to payback all the energy to build
• 50 times energy back over a lifetime
• Cost of wind = zero
• LCA Emissions = 8gCO₂eq/kWh
• Fully recyclable

A Meme to Share

Feel free to distribute this meme.

References

1. Michael Thomas https://x.com/curious_founder/status/1831400487415116140

Anti-renewable video

Preying on the gullible. Here is the amount of waste for solar waste. Just for comparison with coal ash waste.