The Threat of 'Green' Hydrogen Production

It's true cost is in more than dollars - environmentalists - wake up!

image from “Inside Climate News” story by Alexa Robles-Gil, 7/3/24

“Green” hydrogen, besides not really being green at all, is very expensive, in more ways than one. It takes a lot of electrical power to separate H2 by hydrolysis from its very, very strong bond with oxygen in water molecules. The clamor for reducing CO2 emissions has led to plans to use hydrogen for fuels instead of gasoline or natural gas. And the similar politically promoted and government subsidized strident calls for “free” renewable energy is causing extremely expensive wind turbine projects to be built with the idea of producing hydrogen. So an expensive electolysis process is to be undertaken with an expensive electrical production process. It’s not hard to see that all this is far from “free”. We’re talking billions and billions of dollars coming from taxpayers and higher electricity rates.

But that’s not all - there’s another kind of expense - and it’s a bloody one - the death of many birds, many of which are already endangered. Environmentalists need to wake up and push back. Wind turbines look like they’re turning slowly, but they’re not. One reason for the deception is their massive size. A jet airliner looks like it’s going slowly when it’s actually going over 100 mph approaching an airport. The massive jet looks small at a distance, so its movement looks small too.

Wind turbine blades are now up to 430 feet long! They cut through a circle with a circumference of about 2,700 feet - over half a mile. Depending on wind speed, let’s say the blades turn about 2 revolutions per minute. That doesn’t seem like much, but the outermost tips of the blades would be moving over 120 mph. Even halfway out from the center, the blades would be turning at 60 mph - plenty fast enough to kill an eagle or a condor, or decimate a flock of migratory birds.

If you have the stomach for it, here’s a link to Energy Transition Absurdities post 7/7/24 with a 16 second video showing a bald eagle getting hit and killed by a wind turbine.

Inside Climate News of 7/3/24 has a post about a huge wind turbine project proposal for the southern tip of Chile, where it’s nice and windy. The concern is for endangered species of birds and migratory birds that will get slaughtered if those 650 feet high wind towers get built. I’ve taken several excerpts from the article, but suggest you read the whole source, and enjoy more pictures of birds while you’re at it.

“The birds are like clouds in Bahía Lomas. Far off in the southern tip of South America, in the province of Tierra del Fuego, migration takes its highest form in this bay in the eastern mouth in the Straits of Magellan. 

Here, thousands of birds, like the Red Knot, congregate each winter after flying over 9,000 miles from north to south, in search of their wintering grounds. But amid the migrating shorebirds and vast expanse of beach, a potential wind farm development on public land takes shape only a couple of miles away.

These wind farm projects, part of the plan for “green” hydrogen in the Magallanes region, “carry a high risk” for the conservation of the sanctuary of Bahía Lomas, said Diego Luna Quevedo, a specialist in policy and governance for the organization Manomet Conservation Sciences.”

“Made of Patagonian lagoons, wetlands and grasslands, the Magallanes region is host to multiple species of birds that use the habitat as a nesting and feeding site…The development of under-planned wind farms puts at risk the life cycle of birds already considered at risk of extinction”

green, grey, and blue hydrogen

“Wind farms are needed to produce green hydrogen from water during electrolysis.” That’s nonsense, since wind farms are far from “green”. There are tons of CO2 emissions during the production, installation, and maintenance of wind turbines. A.C.

“Historically, hydrogen has been produced from natural gas, and therefore a distinction exists between green hydrogen made from water and renewable energy, and “gray” hydrogen derived from natural gas and non-renewable electricity (which is called “blue” hydrogen if carbon capture technology is used to capture the greenhouse gas emissions resulting from production).”

bird impact

“Researchers have extensively documented bird collisions and displacements by wind turbines around the world. Wind power facilities can degrade habitat, cause bird collisions and displacement, and disrupt important migratory routes, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.”

“Preliminary estimates suggest that the hydrogen projects in the Magallanes region could reach about 2,900 wind turbines by 2027”

“To reach Chile’s goal of producing over 13 percent of the world’s hydrogen requires at least 5,000 square miles of wind turbines…This could lead to 1,740 to 5,220 bird collisions per year,… Those numbers might be higher considering the area is an important migratory site…” emphasis mine