When looking at a wind powered electric generator, many people see a permanent source of renewable electricity. The problem with this image is that wind generators have shorter life spans than the term “sustainable” would imply. Wooden windmills in Holland that used to power industrial machinery before the invention of steam engines were more durable than these picket lines of propellers along our Columbia Gorge. The composite material and rare earth chemicals they require are both perishable and costly to replace. More important, like fossil fuels, our planet has a finite supply of these materials. Wind power is such an inefficient means of generating electricity that a world that seriously relied on it the way we do fossil fuels would run out of the limited resources needed to build and maintain them long before our present trends would exhaust our vast bounty of hydrocarbons.
shinecal99 on 08 Mar 13"Pollution free production of energy. Since geothermal energy does not require fossil fuels to be burned, production of electricity using this type of energy can be considered as pollution free. Sometimes, there is the tendency that this could release some harmful gases from beneath the earth that might actually be harmful. However, these gases could be contained."
