Turbine construction and installation also depends on fossil fuels. There’s the diesel-powered heavy equipment, which clears sites, digs foundations, transports components and assembles them. The coal or natural-gas-fired kilns that bake the concrete, additional coal to forge steel for foundations and towers, and the hydrocarbon-based fiberglass for their blades.

And crucially, there’s no adequate storage technology for the electricity wind and solar produce.

 Hundreds if not thousands of wind turbines (and all their concrete, steel and other materials) are required to produce as much electricity as a single coal, natural gas or nuclear-powered plant. Moreover, standalone turbines must connect by powerlines to the electricity grid, which obviously requires much more infrastructure than when electricity is generated in a single power plant.

Despite promises to the contrary, countries such as Germany, which have significantly increased wind and solar electricity production, have seen no meaningful reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

Rising electricity costs due to increased wind and solar power damage the economy by making businesses that consume significant volumes of electricity less competitive and by leaving less money in the pockets of consumers.

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