[unusualmonkey]

> One oil well can produce an amount of free energy (24/7) that a 100 acre wind farm can only produce sporadically, assuming the well is a reasonably high volume producer. It depends on the specific well/geology.

Except it can't, a 100 acre wind farm can produce energy indefinitely while a oil well will eventually run dry.

The idea that fossil fuels are more ecologically favorable because it's 'dense' needs to address not only external factors, but that fossil fuels are non-renewable.

[lanthade]

> Except it can't, a 100 acre wind farm can produce energy indefinitely while an oil well will eventually run dry.

Perhaps more true in that the wind (as far as we know) won’t run out but wind turbines do have a limited lifespan. After 20-30 years they usually need to be replaced. Some of the components are recycled but a significant portion - including the blades - are either not recyclable or not economically recyclable. Work is being done on this but there’s no guarantee it’ll produce dividends.

[unusualmonkey]

Sure, but the same likely applies to Oil as well right? Fossil Fuels don't magically extract and refine themselves.

What analysis do you point to that suggests fossil fuels have a smaller impact than, say, wind?

[lazide]

It depends entirely on what scope one considers for impact. Do we count maintenance roads? Total land area disturbed? Windmill foundation pads? Global co2 levels? Abandoned equipment in general? Noise levels over how much area?

What is ‘leftover’ from an abandoned well can be as simple as a buried 6” ground level plug, or as messy as an acre of abandoned equipment and a giant oil spill/hazmat area. Plus a billion tons of atmospheric co2 - which is invisible.

If you drive I5 in California through the Central Valley, you’ll see hundreds of active oil wells that have been active since the early 1900’s, mixed in with active orchards and farmlands. They are a bit hard to find. Like this one [https://maps.app.goo.gl/TiWATTxP1jWmu4Et7?g_st=com.google.ma...]. And this one [https://maps.app.goo.gl/ZSeCzys8W2q4ubeJ9?g_st=com.google.ma...].

What you won’t see is that even downtown Los Angeles has similar wells that still produce significant oil hidden in special buildings.

If you take a little detour, you can see the thousands of acres of windmills in Tehachapi that produce similar amounts of total energy. [https://maps.app.goo.gl/TBVn1JUbgqSYTduu5?g_st=com.google.ma...].

And if you keep driving, you can see the thousands of acres of solar farms that are doing similar. [https://maps.app.goo.gl/XGBtWZLppWH7vjqc8?g_st=com.google.ma...]

Oil is so widely used because it is incredibly cheap and easy to use at large scale, with minimal obviously visible consequence.

Because co2 is invisible. And as long as we don’t spill large quantities of it, it doesn’t seem to cause any visible problems.

The effect of the low density from wind, solar, etc. isn’t visible until you go to areas it is widely deployed and then do the math on how much energy they are actually producing, which is a small fraction of what would be produced if the same area was impacted to produce oil or nuclear.

[lazide]

Windwills break down. Weather patterns change.

New oil fields get found as well. Many oil wells are still producing from as far back as the early 1900’s.

That wind farm as built definitely won’t last forever.

So theoretically, sure.

Practically, it isn’t as straightforward. Especially if the only land someone has doesn’t actually get good wind. That’s all.