It’s more important than ever to understand the magnitude of the changes we are going to have to embrace if we are to carry out the most ambitious technological change ever: abandoning fossil fuels and moving to renewable energy.
Such a change is still considered impossible by many people: a form of what sociologists call isomorphism. After many generations of accepting that a coal-fired power plant spewing smoke into the atmosphere or a nuclear power plant stuffed with extremely hazardous materials is a normal part of the landscape, the idea of seeing that same landscape full of solar and wind farms is challenging, to the point of inspiring protests and legislation demanding, as in Germany, that wind turbines be located at least ten times their height away from any inhabited area, which has caused serious problems. It is curious that in the country where a conservative government once made the strongest commitment to renewables of all the world’s major economies, progress is slowed by protests from local communities who do not want to live near something as innocuous in comparison to a coal or nuclear power plant as a wind turbine or a solar farm. In the UK, the development of onshore wind farms could now be stopped by no less than its prime minister, Boris Johnson…
Other criticisms, such as the impact on the bird population, may have some basis in reality, but can usually be solved in relatively simple ways, such as painting one of the wind turbine blades. Those opposed to renewables will find any excuse: there have even been protests about the mild effects of wind farms on the local climate, but the reality is that we need these technologies, and we have to start seeing them as the best solution, if we want to maintain our living standards. Problems with recycling wind turbine blades? It’s all a matter of applying some imagination: there are solutions for everything, and there will be more in the future.
The reality is that wind farms are not only non-aggressive, but also make possible alternative uses of space for livestock or crops through the development of agrivoltaic technologies, capable of even modifying the physiognomy and profile of these types of farms and their owners.
The NIMBYs who oppose solar or wind farms forget that the alternative is much, much more dangerous, and that the future will require us to dedicate very large areas to this type of installation: Germany intends to dedicate more than 2% of the country’s surface area to wind turbines, in addition to offshore developments.
Faced with the problem of neighborhood opposition or local legislation preventing the growth of installed wind farms, the British Minister of Education, Nadhim Zahawi, has proposed offering free energy to communities living near wind farms, as has been done in the past with nuclear power plants. If this is the toll to be paid in order to install more wind farms, we may have to consider doing so, because it is clear that the future brings us a more than considerable change of scenery that we will have to accept is infinitely better than any of the alternatives.
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This post was previously published on Enrique Dans’ blog.
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