{"id":384207,"date":"2025-06-22T16:48:20","date_gmt":"2025-06-22T14:48:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=384207"},"modified":"2025-06-22T16:48:22","modified_gmt":"2025-06-22T14:48:22","slug":"liars-and-wordsmiths-dont-demolish-and-rebuild-wind-farms-they-repower-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=384207","title":{"rendered":"Liars and wordsmiths don\u2019t demolish and rebuild wind farms they \u201crepower\u201d them"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From JoNova<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Jo Nova<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Australia’s oldest commercial wind farm to close as cost of repowering is too high | RenewEconomy<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Repowering<\/em> with intent to deceive\u2026<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

When the subsidies run out, and an old industrial wind plant is due to be demolished and rebuilt, there are perfectly good English words the industry could use like demolish, rebuild or replace, but instead they call it \u201crepowering\u201d \u2014 as if we could just plug a bigger extension cord in and let those turbines grow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the headline above, Reneweconomy<\/em> <\/a>could have just as easily have said the cost of \u201crebuilding\u201d the old wind farm was too high, and most of the country would know exactly<\/em> what that means. Instead \u201crepowering\u201d sounds like a minor low cost maintenance job. Nothing to see here!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Think of the difference between someone saying they want to repower your house compared with saying they\u2019re going to demolish and rebuild it\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You might agree to a little repowering<\/em> without thinking about it. And that\u2019s the point isn\u2019t it?<\/em> To sneak in a giant civil works operation and a set of 200 meter towers with blades bigger than the wingspan of a Jumbo Jet. Those new foundations will need 3,000 tons of concrete each. Just call it repowering!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Old industrial wind turbines are only 1MW or so, but the new ones are 6 to 8 MW. That\u2019s six times more powerful, and nearly three times as tall. Obviously, none of the old bearings, gears, blades or footings will be reused in the new towers. Ironically, the only thing about repowering that doesn\u2019t change is the power-cord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also hides the short, pathetically non-renewable, life of the old wind turbines<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Old wind towers don\u2019t die, of course, it is unmentionable, they just get repowered. (Don\u2019t think about the cost, the waste, the disposal. Don\u2019t think about how coal plants run for 50 years.) Shh!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The term is an official industry term now, o-so-conveniently, and even the commentators admit in the details that it means a complete rebuild.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Repowering a wind farm involves completely decommissioning the existing site \u2013 nothing can be reused<\/strong> except perhaps the connection to the grid.  \u2014 Reneweconomy<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the underlings of the industry just absorb the term and use it in their press releases. But someone in a deep-marketing-bunker had to come up with the deceitful PR term in the first place, and they were not<\/strong> hoping you would understand it. It was never meant to inform \u2014 only to reframe<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Out with the old, in with the subsidy:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Europe not yet reaping the benefits of repowering old wind farms | WindEurope<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Think of \u201cRepowering\u201d as a shield to deflect attention<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Before long, the absurdly meaningless marketing word fills headlines, legal documents and precious seconds of our day. And harried, heavily-taxed voter\u2019s eyes glaze over. Less of them notice that renewables are not renewable, or that the cost of all this demolition and construction must be pushing up electricity bills.  The local community-group leader might not pay attention until too late, when the trucks arrive with the supersize 747 wings and 18,000 tons of Repowering Concrete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every abused word is a win for the parasites unless we name and shame them for the deceit. The Collectivist Left wordsmiths abuse language all the time (and the foolish Right let them get away with it). Climate change<\/em> used to mean the climate changed, but now it means your car causes cyclones. Liberal<\/em> used to mean free. The word-thieves steal perfectly good words and distort their meaning. They destroy our common language one word at a time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our language is our heritage. It is our power to understand. Tell the children we must protect it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When the subsidies run out, and an old industrial wind plant is due to be demolished and rebuilt, there are perfectly good English words the industry could use like demolish, rebuild or replace, but instead they call it \u201crepowering\u201d \u2014 as if we could just plug a bigger extension cord in and let those turbines grow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":384215,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691835965,691827142,691818299,691818879],"class_list":["post-384207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-rebuilding","tag-repowering","tag-subsidies","tag-wind-farm","fallback-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/image-459.png?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1BWT","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":304199,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=304199","url_meta":{"origin":384207,"position":0},"title":"The Death of a Wind Farm","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"02\/24\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"What can one wind facility in Southwestern Minnesota tell us about the state of the American electric grid? 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