In our ever-changing world, renewable energy has become a very controversial yet important topic in energy politics. In the controversy, there have been many misconceptions about clean energy that this page seeks to clear up. Below you can find some popular myths about renewable wind, solar, and nuclear along with some facts that can help reveal the truth.
Fact: Wind power (particularly onshore wind) is actually the cheapest utility-scale energy source available in the U.S. today, with no subsidies required. Onshore wind averages around $50 per megawatt-hour, undercutting natural gas ($70/MWh) and coal ($117/MWh) by a pretty substantial margin.
Offshore wind does cost more, but its price dropped by roughly 50% between 2014 and 2022, and is projected to fall further to around $63/MWh by 2030. Offshore turbines also generate more power than their land-based counterparts — enough to power over 3,300 homes per turbine compared to 1,500 for onshore.
And that’s before accounting for the hidden costs of fossil fuels that never appear on an energy bill but are very real: climate change, air pollution, and public health impacts. When we factor those in, wind looks even more affordable by comparison.
Fact: Wind turbines do kill birds… studies estimate between 140,000 and 679,000 per year in the U.S. However, when compared to the several other causes of bird deaths, this number is small. For context, house cats kill up to 4 billion birds annually, buildings kill nearly 1 billion, and power lines kill between 12 and 64 million birds every year.
And when compared directly to other energy sources, the evidence suggests wind energy is among the safest for birds. A 2012 study found that fossil fuel operations kill about 19 times more birds per gigawatt-hour of electricity produced than wind farms do. This is a result of the broader environmental damage fossil fuels cause including habitat destruction, air pollution, and climate change. In fact, the National Audubon Society estimates that around two-thirds of North American bird species are already at increased risk of extinction due to rising temperatures.
The wind industry is also working to reduce this number even further, through careful site selection and other innovative changes, such as painting turbine blades black to improve visibility.
So although wind turbines are not innocent, they are dramatically safer for birds than the fossil fuels they replace.
Fact: Up to 94% of a wind turbine can be recycled including the steel tower, foundation, gearbox, and electrical components. The problem is the blades, which are made from a tough cross-linked plastic that can’t simply be melted down and reformed and the filler, which is made of fiberglass.
But even that issue is less alarming than it sounds. Blade recycling options already exist today such as mechanical recycling. Researchers are also actively developing new ways to make blades out of more easily recyclable plastics.
And on the landfill concern, all turbine blade waste through 2050 is estimated to represent just 0.05% of annual U.S. landfill waste, and unlike the waste left behind by oil spills, mine tailings and coal ash, the material is completely non-toxic.
Can wind turbines be recycled? | MIT Climate Portal Clean Grid Alliance | Wind Turbine Recycling and Disposal
Fact: Dragonflies have kept out of solar areas when tested and have not mistaken solar panels for water. Solar panels that break are not shown to leach chemicals, like lead, into the soil.
Solar panels exported from China in 2024 will have paid off their “carbon debt” within an average of just four months according to one analysis. They don’t hurt the environment more than they benefit it. Solar panels are also becoming increasingly efficient which makes the cost-benefit analysis even more in their favor.
In many countries more land is taken up by golf courses than solar farms. They aren’t stealing farm land:
Fact: It is much more efficient to use solar farms than to use that same land to grow corn for ethanol. For solar farms, most of the time the landowners are leasing their land to a solar company which then brings a new source of income into the community and it’s a reliable source of income for the landowners.
Solar power projects have been described by the IEA as offering the “cheapest electricity in history”, with unsubsidised solar being cheaper than fossil fuels in most countries.
Solar and wind are also not to blame for increasing utility bills, this has more to do with the changes in gas prices due to geopolitics.
Fact: One study from the University of Rhode Island shows that right after a solar farm is built, within 0.1 mile of a solar farm property values may drop by 7%. This same study says that up to a mile away, there is less than a 1.7% drop. Another study from Virginia Tech shows a drop of 4.7% in nearby residential, but an increase of 19% in property value of nearby agricultural land within 2 miles. Additionally, according to a study conducted by Zillow, residential solar panels can actually increase the appraisal value by 4.1% on average.
Solar Myths | Forbes Debunking Solar Claims | derekthesolarboi Misleading Solar Myths | LinkedIn China’s Clean Energy Exports | Carbon Brief
Fact: Heat pumps are very efficient in warming a home. In fact, heat pumps are very common in Sweden, Norway, and Finland which have the coldest climates in Europe. Cold climate heat pumps can remain effective until temperatures reach -15 degrees Fahrenheit. In systems that reach temperatures lower than that, a backup heat source may be needed.
Fact: Electric heat is already widely used today and can only produce as much heat as the energy that is put in can provide. Usually about 1 heat unit equivalent to a kWh. However, because a heat pump isn’t producing the heat, heat pumps average 2.1 – 3.2 equivalent heat units per kWh because their efficiency isn’t capped at 100%. Heat pumps will also get more efficient and cheaper as time goes on due to their increasing popularity. While efficiency decreases in colder climates, in colder climates these heat pumps still average around the baseline 2.1 efficiency over their resistive heat electric counterparts. 42% of people in the US already use electric heat either via heat pump or resistive electricity, so if people switched to heat pumps it would actually be vastly more efficient.
Fact: Heat pumps have been around since 1856 when the first one was built. In Zurich city hall 1938, a heat pump was put in and was not replaced until 2001! There are also 200 million heat pumps in operation worldwide today!
Fact: Most modern gas boilers require electricity to run and will not work without electricity either. In any case, a backup battery or generator is a great solution. However, a genuine solution to this problem is a wood stove in an emergency, but a blackout is a rare modern occurrence and is not usually a problem. The problem is also not exclusive to heat pumps.
Fact: While nuclear power is a great source of clean energy, it has a massive drawback: it takes an incredibly long time to build and costs a staggering amount of money up front. According to data from the International Energy Agency (IEA) and recent energy project reports, a new modern nuclear reactor takes an average of 8 to 10 years and often much longer due to delays just to go from breaking ground to turning on the lights. On top of that, building a single modern plant costs billions of dollars before it ever produces a single watt of power. Because climate change requires us to cut emissions immediately, relying only on nuclear power is too slow and expensive on its own, which is why experts say we have to use fast-building options like wind and solar alongside it.
