https://science.feedback.org/review/contrary-to-wide-awake-medias-misleading-claims-wind-turbines-are-greener-than-fossil-fuels-by-multiple-measures/ You often see opponents of wind energy claim that wind turbines are CO2-intensive to build and that their blades produce a lot of waste at the end of their life. But these claims lack context. We need to compare them to their competition: fossil fuel power plants. Coal and gas power plants are far more CO2-intensive than wind turbines, no matter where in the world they’re built. On average, even when we account for the greenhouse gases from all parts of each power source’s life, *gas and coal emit 35 and 75 times more greenhouse gas than wind turbines* , respectively, to generate the same quantity of electricity. Building a fossil fuel power plant is less emissions-intensive than building an equivalent amount of wind turbines. But the simple fact that wind turbines (and solar panels) don’t burn greenhouse-gas-emitting fossil fuels to generate electricity means that coal and gas plants will emit significantly more greenhouse gas over their lifetime. Likewise, wind turbine blades do go to landfill after their lives – but across the globe, they create a small amount of waste compared to what fossil fuels produce. Extracting and transporting oil leaves behind toxic sludge, and coal-burning leaves behind ash that power plant operators must dispose of. It’s estimated that the world’s coal power plants produce more waste in a single year than its wind turbines will produce in 35 years.