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> There is no climate benefit to opening a wind farm. The climate benefit comes when a wind farm causes a fossil fuel power plant to be shut down. In many coun
by cameronh90 4y ago
> There is no climate benefit to opening a wind farm. The climate benefit comes when a wind farm causes a fossil fuel power plant to be shut down.
In many countries, this is exactly what's happening.
In the UK for example, gas and electricity usage has been declining for the last 15 years. Coal has been almost eliminated from the grid, and renewables now account for about 40% of generation, from less than 10% a decade ago. Overall carbon emissions are below 1890 levels.
Obviously we have outsourced some of our emissions but there's very clearly a huge reduction that can't be entirely explained by that.
- eatmyshorts 4y agoIt's happening throughout Europe and North America. The United States has had declining per-capita carbon consumption since around 1970. Absolute levels, which include population growth, have been going down since around 2000. We're replacing high-carbon power sources (i.e. coal) with lower carbon power sources (i.e. nat gas) and carbon-based sources with renewable sources, with wind and solar now producing some 13% of the total energy consumption and 20% of domestic energy production, more than double the percentages from 2015.