Donald Trump has claimed that wind power is the most expensive energy in the world.
I was going to fact-check that, but then The Guardian did, so instead, this is my summary of their arguments.
Q: Is wind energy the most expensive form of energy, as Trump claims?
A: No. Onshore wind is one of the cheapest sources of electricity to build and operate. Offshore wind is more costly to build but still generates electricity cheaply and with greater price stability than gas or nuclear. Even when accounting for grid costs, wind remains cost-competitive.
Q: Do offshore wind farms kill whales or drive them “loco”?
A: There is no direct evidence linking offshore wind activity to whale deaths. The main threats to whales remain fishing gear entanglement and climate-related ocean changes. Some construction surveys may disturb whales, but these are smaller than those used in oil and gas.
Q: Do wind turbines kill birds?
A: Yes, but the impact is relatively small. Far more birds are killed by domestic cats, power lines, and pesticides. Wind developers are also adopting mitigation strategies, like painting blades to reduce collisions.
Q: Do turbines really rot after eight years and become impossible to dispose of?
A: No. Wind turbines typically last 20–25 years. Most of the components are recyclable, and even the fibreglass blades, which are harder to dispose of, are being reused—for example, in cement or infrastructure projects.
Q: Is it true that most wind turbines are made in China?
A: Yes, China produces about 60% of global wind turbines. However, this is not unusual given China's dominance in many manufacturing sectors. The UK is also expanding domestic wind manufacturing, supporting green jobs.
Q: Are wind turbines “killing us”, as Trump says?
A: No. Deaths related to wind turbines are rare and typically occur during construction—similar to other large infrastructure industries. Wind energy does not pose a general health or safety threat to the public.
In other words, Trump is talking total hot air. He should, I suggest, stop passing wind. It's right now just about the best energy we have got. And it's vastly cheaper and more environmentally friendly than 'drill baby, drill', which is the real agenda for his dismissal, because the destruction of our world's resources for what he believes to be profit is his real aim, and wind power totally undermines that goal.
It really is time for the world's leaders to stop fawning over him and instead tell him where he can get off.
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No surprises there. But is it understood by people in the US, and especially those who support Trump?
A lot of his supporters think he has been sent to prepare the world for the second coming of Christ.
You really couldn’t make it up, could you?
No you could not!
He’s a destructive bugger isn’t he, Trump?
Like most politicians, you know he is lying when his mouth is moving. He lies, habitually, reflexively, fluently, with no moral compass. Just like Boris Johnson did. His only guiding star is self interest.
We should stop listening to him, and giving him the attention he so desperately craves. Paying court to the senile balding overweight incontinent old lecher only encourages the felon.
“In other words, Trump is talking total hot air.”
Trump is basically insane or going there very quickly. He really cannot remember what he said five minutes after saying it.
This comes from two people I know who have met Trump for more than a handshake.
It’s obviously true
But still, thank you
I don’t know what is worse – that Trump actually says such tripe or that he appears so certain and confident when saying it.
Has he ever said anything that is actually true and correct? I’m going to go out on a limb and say that it has happened at some point, somewhere but only on very, very, very rare occasions (and even then I am probably overstating it).
Craig
Yet Starmer, ie: the current UK government, is more interested in keeping HIM happy than forging relationships with our neiighbours; more interested in collaborating with Trump’s many crimes than pursuing righteous, just, and good government.
So when Trump falls, the UK falls with him, friendless, tainted and despised, an international irrelevance.
It doesn’t have to be like this, but Starmer is incapable of change. He has to go, and soon.
The rest of the world will continue to build and use wind and solar power, even if Trump doesn’t like it. They will do so because it is cheaper than fossil fuel. The only effect of Trump’s prejudice against renewables will be to damage the US economy. On this issue, even if not others, it is best to ignore him. He is like Canute trying to hold back the waves (but without the King’s wisdom).
Until we have a gov’t-imposed radical reform of how UK citizens buy energy (and of course how we generate it), I still have to buy my energy, wind, solar, or hydro, at prices decided, and even worse, inflated, by international gas traders gambling in an international energy casino.
With solar panels and an 8.4kWh battery, my summer electric standing charge is 4x my electricity import bill. (I unavoidably import 0.5 units a day between March and October due to inverter capacity limits – I generate far more than I use, but have limited opportunity to control how I export it) My supplier only supplies/sells renewable electric.
My bill includes compulsory levies for nuclear power station construction, and a green gas levy. The national grid and local sub-station infrastructure is collapsing/bursting into flames, due to poor maintenance.
Gov’t appears to be disinterested or actively making things worse.
The injustice for my compatriots north of Carter Bar is even worse.
Thanks
I have been living in Ireland for some 30 years and thought that my electric bill I received today might give some perspective, it was €347.57 for 2 months. That includes cooking and lighting, heating is oil, something I am planning to replace.
Note Ireland dose have a lot of land based wind turbines and gets some electricity from the UK.
Replying to Ben in Ireland with his astronomical electricity bill, of about 173€ per month. Here in northern Spain, we have a mere 7 solar panels, which work well even on grey days, feeding into the grid with a Virtual Battery , via a green energy supplier. Also a solar hot water panel. We also have an electric oven, kettle and lights, freezer, electric strimmer, shredder etc etc, and an electric water heater to back up the solar. Last month our electricity bill was just 26€. Even in mid winter, when it is often grey and rainy like Ireland (heating is pellet boiler and wood stove (partly our own wood ), and occasional heating back up with an electric blow heater, our electricity bill did not exceed 47€ in a month even in a rambling old stone house.
What is happening here ? How is Ireland and UK so insanely expensive ? It cannot surely be just nuclear power subsidies and international gas/energy casino pricing ?
I think that’s one for Mike….
@ RobertJ,
You are being misled, which is the intention, if you think your supplier only sells renewable electricity:
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://utilita.co.uk/blog/2025/01/why-green-tariffs-are-misleading%23:~:text%3DYet%2520suppliers%2520use%2520REGOs%2520to,greener%2520than%2520it%2520really%2520is.&ved=2ahUKEwi65oqp9OKOAxUxV0EAHZzOJF8QFnoECBMQBQ&usg=AOvVaw1NqnNpqF1ub2bT3i15A2TT
Ignore the greenwash, then look for a supplier that only charges for units used. If your annual standing charges exceed the, albeit higher, rates for total consumption, you could consider changing; to a supplier; ideally one that isn’t making bogus claims.
Your electricity supplier has no control, absolutely none whatsoever, over the sources of electricity that pass through your meter. Even the claim, that they only buy from renewable sources doesn’t stand up to much scrutiny; because somewhere along the line, they’ll have to pay for the gas and nuclear generated power they’re selling to you.
The nonesense he spouted was not for the EU or us – it was for his Maga-base (& the imbeciles like Fart-rage who will re-use/repurpose it).
It was all performative & aimed to stir up some controversy – keep the mango-mussolini in the news. It worked.
My disspointment is that there is not a line of near-shore wind turbines (2km off shore) running along the coast infront of Turdberry.
I agree that wind and solar are very cheap per unit of electricity. Even when all factors are taken into account it is a lot cheaper than gas or oil or nuclear. Tidal generation is 24/7 but plenty of reasons not to go there. (Slows the rotation of the planet! We’ll be in big trouble from that in a couple of million years.)
Distributed generation carries extra costs, needs a lot of copper and the grid is not designed for this. Still, wind is much cheaper.
The problem is that we demand 24/7 power. Easy done. Put lots of storage in place. Pumped hydro and batteries seem the best option but the excess power could be used to make chemical changes (get hydrogen from water) that the energy can be recovered from at a later date. Plenty of options that I am unaware of.
Then the cost per unit of electricity rises and wind is no longer the cheapest optionwith storage considered.
If we accept, as much of the world does, that we won’t have 24/7 power then our current generation strategy is a winner. As I write we are getting 0.9GW from wind with a generation capacity of 30+GW. 20+GW from oil, gas, nuclear, abroad. Putting up another couple of thousand windmills would not help today, now.
Will we as a nation accept rolling power cuts? I suspect that there will not be an option this winter. Cold windless nights over the winter will determine how dedicated as a nation we are to stopping burning oil.
Thanks
“Tidal generation is 24/7 but plenty of reasons not to go there. (Slows the rotation of the planet! We’ll be in big trouble from that in a couple of million years.)”
Merseysiders disagree with you! 😉
https://www.solarpowerportal.co.uk/solar-technology/mersey-tidal-power-project-consultation-overwhelmingly-backed-by-public
I seem to remember, when watching a TV documentary about people protesting against Trump’s proposed golf course on the east coast of Scotland, that Trump objected to wind farms being built off the coast there as they ‘spoiled the view’. How did that end? I know Trump got permission to build his golf course, but both that course and the Turnberry one are losing millions. Not the best advert for his alleged entrepreneurial genius. Like his casinos in Atlantic city that eventually went bankrupt. I am no golfer and no idea of average green fees, but surely must be far less than the £495 Trump charges at Turnberry in high summer.
Scotland has a tradition of municipal
(“communist”) golf!
https://www.golfshake.com/news/view/20898/Why_Municipal_Golf_Courses_Are_So_Important.html
Indeed, and it is a good one.
I have played very, very little golf in my life and have no intention of doing so again, but Scotland’s municipal approach to this is spo[r]t on.
There are also serious questions about the source(s) of the very substantial funding which was poured into the purchase and deveopment of his golf courses in Scotland. However Trump and his cronies are masters of obfuscation, so don’t expect answers anytime soon. Suffice it to say the Scottish public is scunnert with him on multiple topics and are being kept at a significant distance in order not to disturb his golf, but protests are happening in Edinburgh, Aberdeen and his mother’s homeland – the Isle of Lewis.
There are also serious questions about the cost of his private visit incurred by Scotland, the UK, the EU and the USA. Mere mortals have to pay for their personal holidays, but not The Donald (or indeed some British politicians).
I have tried to investigate those accounts for The National – anmd they are too opaque to make any sense at all, and I have read a greaty many accounts in my life.
Im tempted to ask ChatGPT to give me a speech on almost anything in the style of Trump. Invariably not just riddled with falsehoods but rambling all over the place.
@Drew Anderson
https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/07/29/trump-should-stop-passing-wind/comment-page-1/#comment-1034294
I fully understand that the national grid has a mixture of renewable and fossil fuels in it and they dont come with labels on, as they enter my house.
I’m also aware of the tricks some companies play with REGO Certificates.
I’m maybe better informed than you assumed, but thank you for your advice.
My energy supplier is primarily a green generator, and their of supply of electricity is 100% certified renewable, and around 10% of that, they generate themselves. The income from sales are ploughed back into increased generation capacity. They run solar, wind and battery projects and are also involved more controversially in manufacturing green gas from grass.
They aren’t perfect by any means, particularly with regard to flexible pricing and have been very slow in developing their export pricing options although that’s on the way, as is a scheme for consumers like me with batteries who would like to export surplus power at peak times when I have it available. I keep nagging them.
Personally, I’d like to see more community energy schemes of the sort Mike Parr promotes to give communities more control over their energy needs.
I hope that’s helpful.
https://theconversation.com/how-wind-and-solar-power-helps-keep-americas-farms-alive-260657
I hope someone shows this to Trump. Not that he will believe it, of course.
He’d probably rather close the University of Illinois.