The Power of the Wind | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

welcome to stuff you should know a. production of iHeart. Radio hey and welcome to the podcast I'm. Josh and there's Chuck and Ben's here. too and this is stuff you should. know wind Edition because it's blowing. my microphone all over the place what is. going on here I feel like um you should. handle this one and I'll just do wind. sound effects in the background the. whole time.

okay that'll be good my Studio's haunted. today I don't know what's happening is. it Eerie no just nothing is Right. sometimes I feel like Ruby comes in here. and messes with stuff oh no I think. that's the ghost oh my goodness that's. hilarious oh what happens when I do this. yeah like the lights are down. everything's different huh okay all. right I'm fine I'm back to normal well. I'm back to normal too I'm going to go. ahead and presume Ben's back to normal. so you listener if you're back to normal.

great we can get started then if not. we'll wait just email. us uh yeah so we're talking about wind. power and I guess a good uh starting. point would be history and uh not to get. to like in the weeds with you know. sailing ships and stuff like that uh cuz. people have long been using wind for. different things but I think as far as. generating power MH early on you know. water was the thing obviously coal was. was a thing but there was a guy a very.

intelligent Scott and we love our. Scottish people MH in 1887 it was an. engineer who designed the first wind. turbine to do what we're talking about. today yeah and it's not like he had the. he was the first person to come up with. a wind turbine I mean everybody knows. the Dutch head windmills for centuries. and centuries before but this guy was. the first one to try to genuinely. harness wind power to generate. electricity his name was was James ble.

and he had a a second home apparently in. the town of Mary Kirk in Scotland which. has great Scotch I. assume and uh he had so much power from. his his uh wind turbine Chuck that he. offered the excess of it to um the town. of Mary Kirk and this guy was so. Advanced he had 12 batteries storing the. electrical power that his wind turbine. was generating he just invented it like.

Lock Stock and Barrel the first time out. great Scott literally he really was a. great Scott so you know in on small. scales people came behind him and were. doing it but it wasn't really until uh a. gentleman a Danish gentleman a. meteorologist named uh I've never seen. that p o l pole I guess. Poore uh he is the one who really has a. lot of the you know gets a lot of the. credit rightfully so for kind of getting.

when generated power going in a serious. way uh because in the 1890s he's like. you know what uh I can produce a steady. stream of power this thing isn't uh as. intermittent as they were before and I'm. actually going to create enough power. for my Village for the village of ascoff. and I'm going to found something that. sounds like uh sorcery I'm going to. found the Society of wind electricians. even yeah and he did he was very.

successful out of the gate um that was. 190 1895 he started 1908 there were 72. different um systems running in Denmark. um and each of them had a capacity. between 5 and 25 kilow which is peanuts. peanuts now but at the time this was. remember in our Love Canal episode where. electricity for a while no matter how. you generated it had to be generated. like right next to where you were. Distributing the power so it would make. sense that you'd have a windmill like. right at the village that was being.

powered because if you were getting it. from a Coal Fire plant you had to have. it right there too um so that made wind. kind of competitive for a while and even. until the into the 20th century it was. still fairly competitive even as um coal. and gas fired electrical plants started. to take over because in rural areas they. um didn't have access to the grid so. they they were using wind turbines and. then finally FDR comes along and said. nuts to that we're electrifying this.

whole darn totin country and uh the wind. turbines fell over in Surprise and um. Cal fired electrical grids took over. yeah and they pretty much held the um. you know The High Ground until the 990s. when there was a renewed interest in. Wind uh things got a little windy in the. 90s in ' 92 uh Congress passed a tax. credit Clinton came along after that you. know started to fund more uh you know. basically Federal projects toward wind m.

and then States got on board. individually uh especially States like. Texas and Iowa you know if you're out. and you have lots of lots of wind lots. of open planes you can generate more. wind energy and Texas for their part has. uh really you know up until recent years. been super supportive of wind energy and. are Far and Away the leader in US wind. energy um but as just far as like raw. numbers um from 1990 to 2010 we went.

from uh almost 2.8 billion kilowatt. hours to close to 5.6 billion and then. 2010 that jumped to 95 billion which is. just a huge jump over that span of time. and then now in 2022 we are at 434. billion kilowatt hours so in 32 years we. went from 2.79 billion to 434 billion. that's that is right that's pretty rapid.

progress I mean that's amazing that's. just in the United States too as we'll. see like around the world they're. countries who are like yeah why don't. you catch up lamos and then other. countries like China are um just jumping. ahead of the curve even more. impressively but wind is definitely I'm. sorry for this but wind is picking up. around the. world yeah so we should probably talk a. little bit about how the actual Machine. Works uh we're going to concentrate on. the hot systems that is the horizontal.

axxis. hwt uh just a little bit about the. vertical axis the vaults uh they're kind. of cool in that you can you don't like. have to point it at the wind um but. they're smaller they're slower they're. not as efficient they're for you know. small scale generation so those aren't. sort of the big daddies the big players. in the field it's really the hot rotors. that are hot they're hella hot they are. so yeah if you have a small what called. a distributed system which is like that.

thing that say James ble or Paul lur. came up with that just powers like a. very small area say your house you're. probably going to do a vertical axis. type it's like a merry girl round with. sails around it um but the Sails are. actually wind turbines and it looks cool. cooler than a a um horizontal axis one. if you ask me but the horizontal ones. are most ubiquitous because they can. generate power in Aces compared to the. vertical types right um they're way more.

efficient uh you can make them way. bigger because if you're making. something with a vertical axis it takes. up ground space cuz it's basically on. the ground the the horizontal ones. they're way up in the air catching. generally steady streams of air that. have very little turbulence that are. moving fairly fast compared to the stuff. on the ground and they can convert it. very efficiently at least as far as wind. turbines are concerned into. electricity Yeah you mentioned the size. these are the you know if you're. traveling out west in the plains or.

something and you see a wind farm these. are the big daddies that we're talking. about um the the little guys are about 8. ft uh in diameter these you know these. are the rotors but if you go offshore. and we'll talk a little bit more about. what's going uh what's going on in the. ocean but uh those can be 800 ft. generate up to 18 megawatts which is. just a lot of power being generated and. I mean those things are just absolutely. enormous like I can't even picture what.

an 800t turbine might look like so take. three football fields cut off just a. little bit of the third one and then. that's the the the turbine diameter I. mean it's so massive it like boggles the. mind even though we're talking about you. know a few hundred feet it's just I just. can't imagine what that looks like up. close yeah same so um connecting to the. US power grid like the size of these. things have basically increased over. time they've just gotten bigger and. bigger and bigger uh these days if.

you're talking like not those. Gargantuans offshore but a regular like. terrestrial turbine on a wind farm is. generally about 400 to 450 ft in. diameter they're about 30 to 35 ft off. the ground and they generate each one. about 3.2. megawatts yeah and this is actually a. case where bigger is better from what. I've seen um the bigger they are means. that they can generate more electricity. which means that you need fewer of them. on site so I saw the average is expected.

to go down in like next year from 222. turbines in like a good size average. wind turbine Farm to 89 so you got far. fewer they're bigger but they also are. figuring out how to make them quieter. too so by going bigger you're actually. getting a lot more out of it it's kind. of like one of those things where the. economy of scale just exceeds the sum of. its parts which is two two different. things but I put them together expertly. if you ask me. yeah and these things uh they got to be.

spaced apart you can't put them. obviously right on each other right uh. so that that makes a difference you know. if you have fewer of them uh they're not. spread out as far obviously. geographically uh and we'll talk about. it a little bit more but it you know. it's not like you can't do anything with. the land um a lot of times you'll just. see them out kind of the middle of. nowhere but that can be cattle land and. stuff like that yes um so usually the um. horizontal axis wind turbines which are.

just the wind turbines you've seen. pictures of or video of or maybe even. seen off in the distance depending on. where you're driving around um they. usually have three blades and three is. kind of this magic number because the. more blades you have the more drag it. produces each blade experiences drag. from the air as it moves through the air. the air is like no stop doing that and. tries to like stop it um and even though. it's individual for each blade they. accumulate and combine and transfer that. to the the rotor so it experiences five.

blades worth of drag so three blades is. kind of sweet because you can generate. quite a bit of electricity you can. capture a bunch of wind but you're also. reducing drag dramatically so um that's. why basically every single horizontal. axis turbine has three blades What's. your ceiling fan. pref definitely more than I don't know. I'm trying to think now I've got such a. strange variety of ceiling hands down. think about it I'm going to.

say I'll go with three sure three what's. yours I typically like a five blader. okay uh four is okay I've got one three. and I've realized that I don't really. like it and boy do I hate those two. Bladers those should not exist I think. that's that's broken is what you're. describing I know people like him so I. don't want to yuck someone's yum but. aesthetically I don't care for the uh.

two-blade propeller style seeding fan. just me okay here's the big question. though do you like those fans that look. like hand fans that they might have used. in Casablanca in the. 1930s oh no oh that are ceiling fans yes. that's what the blades look like no I. don't like to get too like weird okay. well here's the real question though you. thought you had the real question uhuh. do you do you get up and change the. direction of that thing uh every year. sometimes yeah yes depending on whether.

I'm chilly thinking about it and. motivated okay yeah those are the two. factors that are that have to combine I. think that's the factor for almost. everyone except for the you know the. real fastidious person who just has it. on their calendar even I don't have that. on my calendar and I'm suddenly. impressed with myself and kind of. relieved no good uh so the hots um you. know we said that those the vertical. winds don't need to be pointed at the. wind uh the hots do face into the wind. but uh you might think well the wind.

changes chck and Josh how's that. possible well they do it by moving the. turbine to face the wind uh it's got a. yaw system so it's you know it's not too. hard to do uh and they also have pitch. systems that can change the actual angle. of the blades to help control that rotor. speed to really maximize efficiency A. and B protect it because what you don't. want during like a really big wind storm. is for those you might think like oh man. those things get really cooking that's. awesome they they don't need to get too.

cooking it's like a motor spinning too. fast is just never good yeah it can. break pretty easy so if they if they. change the um angle of the blade. relative to the direction of the wind. the wind is going to push on it um. rather than making it spin and so if it. pushes on it it's going to go much. slower so you still want them to kind of. move but not too fast and that's pretty. cool that they've got that figured out. um yeah so you got yaw control pitch. control and the whole thing is um. connected to a rotator that is connected.

to a generator and sometimes you've got. a gearbox in the middle because here's. the thing one of the reasons why um wind. didn't catch on or didn't continue to. spread as coal did is because it's. really difficult to get a a windmill. rotor to spin fast enough to generate. electricity using traditional. electromagnets right you need something. like 1,800 RPMs to to really get a good.

electrical Buzz cooking and wind uh. windmill rotors especially the big ones. these days they're at like 5 10 18 60 I. think is about the top that I saw so. about one rotation a second which is. still a third of what it needs to be to. generate electricity although by the way. they've got that figured out um but for. like one that's using a traditional um. Dynamo not Dynamo I guess generator. right where you've got like magnet. spinning through coils to generate.

electricity they have a gearbox and. somehow through some sort of black magic. I I just genuinely don't understand. gears Chuck we have to do an episode on. it I guess but no no no no no it trans. you don't want to do that it translates. that 60 rotations a minute into 1,800. just by changing the direction I don't. know how they do it I know that it's. really basic stuff that even like. Archimedes used to mess with I just. can't wrap my head around how thaten. happens well I definitely don't want to.

do something on Gears because many years. ago I I'm pretty sure I updated the old. house stws article on Gears okay and it. it's it's pretty mind numbing and boring. okay uh but you know just think about. the size of gears and like a a gears. with tons and tons of teeth uh you know. uh hooking up and making love to a gear. with fewer teeth is going to uh like the.

top one's going to be spinning really. fast and the other one's going to be. spinning less no still doesn't make. sense to me really well have you ever. seen a gear like you know like a like a. gif or something of gears at work yeah I. looked it up for this just just try to. see if I could wrap my head around at. this time and it still just wouldn't. work well fewer teeth just means slower. but that doesn't make sense like I. understand that there that more teeth. means faster how that's where I get.

stuck it's catching fewer teeth which is. like the Go Button. basically I'll chew on this we'll move. on I don't think it's going to work no. no and here I'm the one like lobing to. not do this and I'm trying to explain it. just sticking a short stuff in the. middle of this episode yeah here's. another fun fact is the uh and this is. not super consequential but I just. thought it was interesting is uh the the. gearbox and all that stuff is uh up tall. in the tower and something called a. Nestle and that is an aviation term.

that's like planes have Nestles so just. like you have a spinning propeller on a. plane okay yeah so it's an aviation term. kind of cool okay so like that whole. thing that it looks like the turbines. are mounted to that that whole thing is. basically the Nestle and that's where. the gearbox and the rotor and the. generator are all tucked in right yeah I. think it's like off of the the blades. just like it would be on a plane so the. thing with the gearbox it really works. like you can get some pretty good. electricity out of a relatively small.

set of moving Parts but they are moving. parts and they're way up high usually. dozens of feet in the air um and they. can be loud too and they can get dirty. and break down like any gears can so. there's another kind called a direct. drive system and it it basically they. figured out and I couldn't get to the. bottom of this they they can use that. regular rotation of a um of a wind. turbine to generate electricity I think.

they just it just requires much larger. Parts I think is generally what the what. the tradeoff is so there's pros and cons. to to both kinds and they've kind of. come up with some new stuff that's on. the horizon or happening now that seem. to kind of supersede both of those too. as we'll talk about yeah and you know no. matter how uh efficient you can build um. really any any kind of power generation. system uh there are limits at a certain. point you can increase efficiency and.

increase efficiency but then the laws of. physics step in and say you can't be. 100% efficient you're never going to. capture every bit of the wind uh it's. just not possible and there was a German. physicist in 1919 named Albert Ben who. calculated the theoretical maximum of. kinetic energy that you can zap into. electricity and it basically caps off it. close to 60%. 59.3% uh wind is about 35 to 45%.

efficient which may not sound great uh. but Olia helped us out with this she. points out you know wind is free so it's. not you know you've got these things. sitting out there so it's not like. you're paying to generate that wind. right plus also if you look into the. other types of fuels used to generate. electricity it's perfectly in line. nuclear is between 30 to 45% efficient. Coal's 38 to 45 natural gas is only 25%. efficient so it's it's way better than. Natural Gas gas as far as efficiency.

goes and if you're wondering why why. can't it be 100% efficient the. explanation that I found that I'm still. having trouble digesting too I think the. gears thing really threw me off first. then I went into this and it was just. hopeless to to to transfer 100% of the. power from wind to a turbine that means. the wind has to come to a stop and. transfer all of its energy to the. turbine when it comes in contact with it. and I understand that means the wind. stops but as long as there's a stream of.

wind coming at you why would that matter. that's my big. question uh I don't know I'm not going. to Hazard a guess on this one all right. well how about this we'll take a break. to everybody else it'll just be a couple. of ads but you and I will spend the next. 45 minutes or so hashing this out all. right can we have lunch we can have. lunch we'll we'll order in okay. [Music].

[Music]. all right we're going to talk a little. bit about where we stand today here in. the United States we'll get to elsewhere. in the world later on don't you worry. we're looking at you Denmark uh right. now the United States has about 70,00. ,000 wind turbines going with a capacity.

uh a total potential capacity of about. 146 gws which should make Doc Brown Shak. in his uh whatever kind of shoes he wore. I looked up what that is relative to. what we use I think we use something. like, 1300. gaw so it's like a tenth of that but. that's still pretty good I mean think. about it we went from like basically. zero wind power in the 80s to a tenth of.

our capacity is in the form of wind. turbines nothing on Doc Brown huh oh no. I just think it was so it fits so. perfectly that it'd be like me pointing. out that we've been using the word. turbine you know what I mean do you know. who Doc Brown is sure who he's like uh. Christopher Lloyd from Back to the. Future what kind of person do you think. I am do you know me at all I guess the. kind of person who refuses to comment on. a great Doc Brown joke I was commenting.

on it I was saying that it was such a. perfect joke and it was inserted so. perfectly that there was no need to com. comment. yes I'm G have to remember that your. joke was so good oh no you know what. that you basically just said is that so. funny I forgot to. laugh so uh last year 2023 about 10% of. our uh electricity came from wind not. too bad I mentioned Texas as the leader. they're um generating about 25% of that.

a little more even that's just. mindboggling to think considering Texas. you know they are well let's talk about. Texas for a second because they have. been Far and Away the leader they got a. lot of wide open land there in West. Texas uh they have their own um their. own power grid they're the only state. with their own power grid so that makes. it a lot easier for them with Interstate. projects to not have to you know they. can rely on themselves like Texans like. to do. uh but here's the thing um in recent.

years uh I don't think it's a stretch to. say that there's been some um I mean. Livia calls it ideological Warfare and. she's basically right uh and that's. unfortunate because now there are. conservatives in Texas that are making. it harder to do something they're really. really good at and that's generate wind. for power uh and that's a real shame. because it seems like ideology I mean I.

know there are uh and we'll talk about. downsides of wind production and there. are gripes that it's you know there. might be inconsistent Supply but it. really seems to kind of come down to. like no we are an oil State and we we're. even though we're great at making wi we. we I guess can't do both I don't know. but I mean even though they are an oil. State they've been in oil state for. decades and decades like a century. basically and they still spend all this. time and money and effort into creating. this wind um infrastructure still keep.

going Texas I don't think it has. anything to do with oil I think I think. certain vein of conservativism. equates um anything Earth friendly to to. liberals I know I know and like be. because everything's so divisive and the. sides are just so divided that like you. just can't possibly be into something. that liberals favor like that's just. crazy and vice versa like there's I mean. I don't mean to just say like this is a. conservatives like the divisiveness.

definitely it can be found on both sides. of the equation It's just sad that. there's two sides let's just get past. the sides everybody well it's sad that. it's affecting something like this which. like I said Texas is really really good. at they they have a lot a lot of it. figured out they're they're the leader. in the United States like keep it keep. it going Texas the thing is this Chuck. they're they're trying they're not. necessarily succeeding um in the 2022. 2023 session a whole raft of bills that.

were trying to basically um make wind. power investment harder none of them. passed and I think the reason why and. this is kind of like the thing like yes. you can oppose wind power but I think. the the giant gears are already in. motion like massive corporations but you. don't know how those work I know I don't. but I can tell when they're moving I. guess yeah so like just giant. multinational corporations have sunk so. many tens and hundreds and of billions.

of dollars into this investment and are. starting now to actually reap benefit. from it it's not it's not going back. like sorry it's just not so it's still. moving forward it just sucks that it has. to move forward at this in this kind of. like um slower Pace it's just a negative. but with a negative vibe you know yeah. no totally I mean hopefully you know. Americans are capitalists and hopefully. money will went out in the end because. like you said a lot of money invested. and a lot of money to be made the thing.

is though that's not to say that people. who oppose especially locally oppose um. wind projects don't have a point there's. a lot to be said about not wanting to. live near a wind turbine or in. particular a wind farm because um it's. just one of those things that like this. is going to impact your life it can. impact your real estate values it can. impact what's called The View shed just. simply your view um there's there's.

actual legitimate reasons for people to. push back on this stuff but that doesn't. mean that there can't be like a. compromise A Way Forward right to find. legitimate places where win can be. generated well and efficiently without. you know ruining some nearby community. yeah I mean there's definitely a lot of. uh what's it called nimi going on yeah. on both sides you know well yeah for. sure and again I don't blame anybody for. for that that it sucks because that.

whole um that whole idea means that. usually poor communities who who can't. represent themselves and don't have the. the the means to really like have the. political clout to push back on that. kind of thing end up with this stuff but. it seems like um that with with things. like wind turbine farms in. particular um the decision- making is. being decentralized so more and more. local communities are being able to step. in and being like no this is not. happening here sorry where our city. council voted against it it's not.

happening um and I think that that's I. think that's legitimate um I think that. I I I don't I don't know what the way. forward is but I know that there's a way. forward but I don't think it's shoving a. wind farm down a local community's. throat whether they like it or not yeah. and by the way n people are like what. the heck is Chuck talking about uh. that's just acronym the the not in my. backyard thing you're like no wind. energy is great we should totally do it. but I don't want one of those my. backyard over there go do it over there.

much much better exactly uh but um. moving on we promised to talk about. offshore uh most of what's going on. right now is on land in terms of uh wind. collection uh I guess they're not. collecting it but in a way they are sure. um but if you think about a lot of wind. out on the open ocean that seems like a. no-brainer in some ways uh and we will. get to the uh environmental aspects of. all this stuff later so people out there. screaming like how can you put put more. things in the ocean like we'll get to it.

uh but it is a promising idea stronger. winds uh there's a lot of Permitting. issues obviously what we just talked. about with the nimi thing a lot of. communities um you know beachfront. property or generally people who either. you know if you're lucky enough to have. owned it forever you may not be super. wealthy but most people who like live on. the beach are wealthy and they don't. want to see that stuff so there's been a. lot of uh complaints about looking at. kind of thing but we may be headed.

toward. um I mean they're building more and more. of them in the coming years it seems. like well this is kind of what I was. talking about there was a big um push. against the vineyard win um project yeah. I should say there was a vocal push. against it and it's still happening like. they're they're doing I think 62. turbines they've already got five. installed and it's just it's moving. forward but at the same time like a. bunch of local people who make their. money off of fishing they um were.

affected by this like their fishing. grounds were now a wind turbine Farm. they couldn't fish there anymore so. they're being compensated for that um so. they're paying commercial fishermen to. not fish essentially to to stay out of. this area at least or to accept a buffer. zone so um like yeah there's like that's. what I'm saying there's compromises to. be to be made here and other people are. like with this view shed thing what are. you talking about like if you hold your. hand up the the the windmill that you. see on the horizon is smaller than your.

fingernail like right that that's what. you're seeing and other people are like. I I don't want to see it I don't miles. out I don't want to see it um but those. people seem to have um I guess they're. outnumbered or out outgunned by the. people who are like no this Project's. going forward and again it's tough to. tough to argue about it because sure. right now the 68 megawatt that that. Vineyard wind um. project is is putting out with just the.

five turbines that's enough to power. 30,000 homes and their goal is something. like um 800. megawatts so there's going to be a lot. of people getting a lot of clean energy. from the wind project yeah and there. there there are more kind of um people. are looking to the ocean the Gulf of. Mexico may have one at some point the. Mid-Atlantic is being targeted uh Joe. Biden and his administration have a. target of. 30,000 megawatt offshore. uh hours by.

2030 uh it seems like like we're going. to mention a lot of like goals and. things it doesn't seem like any of these. will be reached but those are the goals. at least uh and you know we're kind of. explaining why as we're going but um. California is trying to get 20,000 I'm. sorry 25,000 megawatts by 20 uh. 45 uh these are going to be floating. because the Pacific is so deep uh and. Cal Berkeley uh they did a study and. they said that offshore Wind by 2050. could potentially Supply between 10 and.

25% of all US Energy not just wind. energy and offshore is the smallest one. so it's the smallest segment and the. fact that um the offshore wind farms are. so small right now that's significant. growth and I get the impression that one. of the reasons they're growing is one. it's not up on anybody's real estate. it's like way out in the ocean even. though you can kind of see them but. secondly 50% of Americans live within 50. miles of a coast and transmission lines. are a real thing a real issue for uh.

wind power so if you can get you know a. 50m length of transmission wire to 50%. of Americans that's a pretty significant. number of people yeah I wonder if some. of these uh you know like the younger. generation is generally I mean this is a. um broad stroke but generally a little. more into um trying to go toward. renewable energy so I wonder if there. sort of you know if like the rich kids.

are even fighting back against their. parents about stuff like this like I. wonder how you know you said it was like. a pinky nail right dad's complaining. he's on the beach and the kids are like. Dad just hold up your pinky nail block. it out Boomer right exactly the thing is. is I was very interested to find this. out there's a lot of environmentalists. who are opposed to these win projects. too they're making strange bed fellows. with people who who don't like renewable. at all they're like you're an.

environmentalist how can you be opposed. to this they're like look at those giant. turbines that's just one of them and. they're putting more and more offshore. they're ruining habitats they're ruining. communities like this is not the way to. go and they're like well what way do you. want to go hippie like what's wrong now. we're finally doing the stuff you wanted. to do and the thread that seems to be. emerging among younger environmentalists. or among environmentalists in general is. degrowth it's like no we don't need to. create more and more wind farms to meet.

electrical demand that's going to. increase over the next two decades we. need to decrease the electrical demand. and yeah we need to supply it with with. wind and stuff like that but we're we're. going in the wrong direction here we're. building building building to meet. growth growth growth they're like we. need to stop growing so that's actually. made them opposed to a lot of these. projects especially the biggest ones. yeah I mean I think those people look. out and see a big wind farm and it. doesn't look any different to them than. a nuclear power plant or a huge coal. plant all they see is some giant.

monstrosity of capitalism at work that's. exactly right yeah and you know there's. a point so I say we take a break and. we'll jump back into the the more of the. nuts and bolts of this all. [Music]. right and inside. Josh.

[Music]. shock okay Chuck in addition to a lot of. the push back that we just covered for a. while there's um a lot of practical. issues and challenges to to making wind. what was it like up to 25% of us Demand. by 2050 I think that's crazy one of them. is transmission like I said yeah the. wind is out in the middle of nowhere. that's the problem that's exactly right. yeah um the places where it blows the. most there are the least number of.

people um and that means you have to. build an infrastructure to get it from. those less populated areas to the. populated areas that want to use it. that's a big one and apparently there. was a Princeton study that found that. transmission infrastructure is growing. at just like 1% a year and that if we. keep that pace up the um the reduction. in fossil fuel emissions that the. inflation reduction Act envisioned with. a lot of its green stuff that was.

associated with it we'll lose 80% of. that yeah that reduction so we need to. definitely expand transmission lines. it's a big big step yeah for sure uh. getting the power there is a big deal uh. one idea that you know is has a lot of. promise and but you know it all has its. downsides of course like there is no. like perfect system um is storing the. energy so there's a lot of uh work being. done toward um you know storage capacity. it because you know right now if if the.

sun isn't shining uh if it's super. cloudy a lot if the wind isn't blowing. very much then solar and wind are going. to take a hit and then that means that. the fossil fuel plants just sort of make. up for that um but if you know if we're. leaning more and more on solar and wind. and other Renewables we're going to have. to figure out a way to store that. stuff yeah so so just just real quick. for people who aren't in the United. States or who are in the United States. and don't pay attention to um. Congressional packages the inflation. reduction Act was a um a bill was a law.

that was passed in 2022 that had it was. just this huge huge spending package but. one of the things that it really focused. on was the US infrastructure which needs. updating big time but it also looked. forward down the future and was like how. can we invest in in um energy and. Renewables and basically it said the. government's even more open for business. for renewable investment than before and. as a result already had huge impacts. that was passed in 2022 in.

2023 the investment in um renewable. storage so basically giant batteries. that can store solar and wind power for. use later has increased by 300% they. predicted that um in 2040 there was. going to be 50 uh gaw of storage. capacity and now they're up to they're. predicting it'll be more like 200 gwatt. of storage capacity by 2040 just because. of the inflation reduction act yeah uh.

but again you know these batteries are. you know not not environmentally. friendly to create batteries like that. uh I don't even think we mentioned. really the rare earth um metals and and. things that are used for these for the. magnets for the turbines like that stuff. isn't great either so like like we said. there is no perfect system I think early. on the um sort of Pie in the Sky stuff. with Renewables was just like use wind. and use sun which is great um but you. can't just talk about the Blue Sky stuff.

without talking about the downsides yeah. and we need to listen to the downsides. too and then go back to the drawing. board not be like nope this is the way. we're doing it totally we need to say. okay great like we're all we're all on. board with moving forward with this like. how can we figure out or enough of us. are on board with moving forward how can. we figure out how to do it so that it. impacts the fewest people possible and. the least amount possible and that's I. mean we're smart like humans are fairly. smart animals and we can figure that. kind of stuff out we just have to go out.

of our way to take that into account I. feel like that's going to. happen I think so. too I say with trepidation right uh so. we talked about uh or we promised talk. about what's going on around the world. and um we mentioned Denmark of course. because just like those windmills back. in the day they were leader then and. they're the leader now uh they create. 54.3%. of their power supply from wind in.

Denmark as of a couple years ago in 2022. um other European countries Spain. Germany uh Portugal and then the UK. they're over 20% so they're doing pretty. good um if you're talking and that's. percentage wise if you're talking just. total wind generation the US is number. two um with 430 wat terawatt hours uh. annually right now but um you mentioned. China we're at 434 in second place is. generating. 763 terawatt hours per year and like.

running away with it yeah and actually. the world is extraordinarily fortunate. that China has decided to do that rather. than just rely on fossil fuels because. the the pollution that would be even. worse than it is now if they were use if. they use fossil instead of like wind and. solar as they're planning on doing it. would just be the impact would be nuts. essentially yeah I mean I think their. goal and China is full carbon neutrality.

by. 2060 and wind is a very very big part of. that also we should point out China is. not doing that because of their. magnanimous benevolence toward humanity. and the planet they're doing it because. it there's they recognize that there's a. lot of money coming down the pike for. for whoever is prepared for this kind of. Revolution uh and that's it's actually. happening right now that that figure. from how much just the the us alone. improved uh as far as wind generation.

goes from the 9s is just astounding like. I knew it was going on in the background. I had no idea that we were this far. along already which I found very. heartening yeah yeah same um so we. talked a lot about the downsides here. and there um we haven't talked about. animals yet um obviously anytime you're. screwing up a habitat for Animals uh in. nature that's going to have a real bad. effect you know there's no way around it. they're gonna I mean just those spinning. blades are going to kill birds and bats.

and things that fly into them uh but the. wind pressure around these Farms can. affect the. habitats um the terrestrial animals are. affected I think they did a study in. Europe about their R deer and the. European hair that are like they're just. not here anymore because of these wind. farms um in Norway you know they're uh. obviously got a lot of wind going there. but they're they're shutting things down. because because uh reindeer it's. affecting reindeer which is you know a.

very big deal in Norway and the. indigenous SII people who heard the. reindeer so they can't mess with the. indigenous cultures there so they're. shutting some of those down right. they're they're they're it's impacting. local communities no matter how small. the community that's they're they're. responding to it that's a big that's a. big deal um there's also I think you. said earlier a lot of impact um with. ocean-based when because. these things are huge they're like giant. oil dcks but there's a bunch of them and.

they have to be like mounted to the. continental shelf so they don't blow. over so it's a huge massive project and. the sound that it generates can rupture. whales eard drums um it can completely. disturb breeding grounds it can do a lot. of stuff but again it's been pointed out. like if you do this right and you do the. right kind of studies if you look around. and say who is this going to impact and. then how can we mitigate those impacts. there's you can do to to to make the. impact that much lesser as as low as.

possible like if it if you're impacting. whales then plan the construction phase. of it for a time when the whales are off. migrating on another part of the ocean. so it's not going to blow out their. eardrums when you pile Drive the pylons. into the continental shelf or move it. over a little bit keep it out of the. whale breeding ground put it somewhere. else like there's just little things you. can do that will will decrease that. impact tremendously. yeah for sure um one thing we haven't.

talked about that I mean I never really. considered this which is really uh. shortsighted of me uh but these are big. massive machines and when big massive. machines reach the end of their life you. know it's not like they'll they'll go. forever these are physical materials. that wear out uh including those huge. turbines and and Blades so uh when that. stuff you know the the ones that kind of. came on early in the 90s in 2000s some. of those are nearing the end of their. life and all of a sudden you're stuck.

with these blades that right you know. are just gargantuan and they're not made. of uh bamboo or banana fiber you know. they're they're fiberglass and epoxy. resin and they're kind of an. environmental Nightmare and so like what. do you do with those you can't just fill. landfills with these giant beasts no um. there's a company in Tennessee called. carbon rivers that says that they they. recycled about a thousand of the blades. in 2023 which I'm guessing is probably.

significant but still maybe a drop in. the bucket yeah but they figure out how. to extract the carbon fibers from the. epoxy resin and then you can reuse the. carbon fibers because they're very. strong stuff um so that's great that's. good to have that online but the better. the better solution at least in the. future is to start manufacturing the. turbine blades in ways that they can be. much more easily recycled so I think. they're using the same material still. they're just using processes that can um. later on down the road be reversed more.

easily and you can separate the. fiberglass from the the epoxy more. easily and um like you you know kind of. what you've been saying about like uh. why don't you change the way you're. doing things as we go instead of being. locked in that is happening with those. blades um and there's a company in. Germany oh actually it's. seens uh big company sure or is that the. same company Seamans uh gessa as regular. Seamans sure okay I just never heard the. full name I guess I didn't know Sean had.

a last. name uh but they're basically saying. well why don't we make a better kind of. Blade that uses a different kind of. resin that is much more easily uh. separated from that fiberglass so things. like that like you're talking about like. make the parts more easily uh recyclable. or reusable um you know I know they're. using them on like uh like playgrounds. and stuff trying to repurpose them I. guess it makes a heck of a slide or. something like that but uh that there.

you know there there are limits to how. much you can uh I mean it all helps but. how much uh because there's a lot of. blades out there they're going to be. coming offline you know right and. they're big also by the way I think I I. was using carbon fiber and fiberglass. interchangeably and I'm not quite sure. that's right so I they're fiberglass. right yeah I think so um so there's a. couple of other things that um that are. drawbacks to turbines that need to be. addressed rest um one's called Shadow. flicker when the sun is lowish in the on.

the horizon and it's just kind of. beaming through the wind turbine as the. turbine spins it makes a flickering. Shadow and if you live in range of that. shadow it can drive you crazy as a. matter of fact they did a study to make. sure that it wasn't um rapid enough to. trigger seizures yeah and apparently the. max is again 60 RPMs so um I think it's. like 100 it takes double that to start. to trigger photosensitive seizures so.

like it's not going to trigger a seizure. but yes it's extremely annoying when it. happens but they're like it only happens. certain times of the year a couple of. hours out of a day can we can you just. get used to it and some people are like. no and then other people are like yeah. it's not they they did another study of. people who' lived in proximity of wind. turbines they're like I don't even. really notice anymore and then noise too. like it makes a noise but again the. fewer parts that you have this the um.

the less noise it's going to make like. if you don't have a gearbox those gears. aren't there to make a bunch of noise if. you do have a gearbox you need to. soundproof your um what' you call that. that package that the airplane has too. uh Nestle a. Nestle and then also um they're making I. think these giant those giant turbines. are also going to be quieter they're. like 18% quieter or something like that. so yeah there's a lot of stuff that. needs to be addressed but I feel like it. I just think it's going to get addressed.

if I can share my opinion yeah it's a. sunny opinion you got anything else I. got nothing else all right well that's. it for wind turbines for now we'll have. to revisit it in your 35 of stuff you. should know uh and since I said that. it's time for listener. man uh yeah I'm going to call this um. Marcy is definitely Asian uh we heard. from quite a few Asian listeners for. peanuts episode mhm uh who were very. kind but they were kind of like guys you.

seemed a little hesitant to kind of to. kind of go there but go there because. Marcy was clearly Asian to every kid. that was Asian in Reading peanuts uh and. this one is from Hugh uh. nuan so uh hey guys I'm a 43-year-old. Vietnamese American uh who grew up. reading and watching peanuts my friend's. family and I assumed without question. that Charles uh Schultz and intended. Marcy to be Asian-American by drawing. and writing her with so many shortcuts.

to Signal Asian-American identity uh. first her haircut uh Mary's hair is a. short black Bob with bangs many. Asian-American girls had this fuss-free. homemade haircut exacted upon them by. their Frugal mothers uh number two her. glasses Asians and Americans and. asian-americans do have a higher rate of. myopia in developed countries so eyewear. is just more common with us mhm uh she's. awkward because she is so busy uh I. quote an article by Kevin Wong which. resonates with me um and so many.

children raised by overly protective. immigrant parents who carried the trauma. of war and or forced immigration uh. Marcy couldn't come out to play because. she had to practice her organ she had to. study she had to read this was our. experience uh number four she is othered. by everyone Asian language food religion. and culture in general were and might. still be considered foreign and weird in. many parts of the US. and I just assume Marcy was depicted as. a strange little girl because that's how.

the Peanuts Gang and the rest of America. would perceive a uh an unathletic. bookish Asian child and then finally she. calls Peppermint Patty sir because. English is her second language guys in. many East and Southeast Asian languages. children address adults and people in. positions of power and respect with. courtesy titles that have no gender so. that's why Peppermint Patty was called. sir wow we who is this this is from an.

uh I I got a pronunciation guide uh it's. spelled h i e uh pronounced Hugh and N. guu ye n and Hugh said I pronounced that. Hugh nean but uh different people even. pronounce my last name differently. within my own country yeah I've always. seen it pronounce or heard it pronounce. as when yeah so uh that was a great. email and we appreciate all our uh Asian. and Asian-American listeners who wrote. about that saying uh guys we thought she. was Asian so it's okay to say that.

that's awesome thanks for sharing uh if. you want to get in touch with us like uh. Hugh did and everybody else uh you can. send us an email send it off to stuff. podcast iheartradio.com. stuff you should know is a production of. iHeart radio for more podcasts iHeart. Radio visit the iHeart Radio app Apple. podcasts or wherever you listen to your. favorite shows.