One of the many problems with wind and solar energy is that they are both terrible for the environment. Wind turbines, in particular, last for only a short time–20 years, or sometimes only 15–and present major disposal issues when their useful lives are over. This video shows what a blight on the landscape an abandoned wind farm can be. Expect to see many more such desolate landscapes if wind power spreads:
I don’t believe there is anywhere in the U.S. where one can develop a mining project without furnishing financial security, typically in the form of a bond, to pay for the restoration of the site after the mine has finished yielding ore. Obviously nothing like that was done with regard to the project you see in the video. Perhaps it was abandoned by a bankrupt single-purpose developer.
Advocates of wind and solar power never count all the costs when they allege that such sources of energy are affordable. One of the several costs that are consistently left out from such claims is the cost of dismantling and disposing of the remnants of a defunct project. In this Oklahoma case, at least, that turned out to be someone else’s problem.
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