PFOS and PFAS are commonly used in wind turbine manufacturing and use. This is not in dispute.
Renewable energy components such as hydrogen fuel cells, wind turbines, sheathing for power cables, and coatings for electrical wires can all contain PFAS. They also can appear in battery energy storage system cabinets and in fire suppression systems for battery energy storage projects.
Renewable energy companies must now consider PFAS in real estate diligence and may be required to comply with upcoming reporting obligations under new federal regulations. Certain states have proposed or instituted bans on selling and distributing PFAS-containing products and parts, which may affect the import of renewable project components.
As a side note, someone ought to ask if the proposed battery storage facility at Schiller Station – with or without Gulf of Maine Wind – uses any PFAS or PFOS. The people in Portsmouth will probably have an issue with that.
Anyway, the presence of these compounds as coatings brings us to one of several other issues. While the clean energy folks claim their turbine blades are coated to prevent shedding microplastic and Bisphenol A (also toxic to humans and wildlife), researchers insist that this is inadequate. You can read a very long and detailed report here, but to keep things simple, other research suggests that erosion during use and after disposal presents significant environmental and health hazards.
The coating that is supposed to prevent erosion and the introduction of bisphenol and microplastics is made using PFAS. EU member countries have concerns and proposed restrictions, and it is clear that these compounds are commonly used in the wind industry.
Even better news, if this concerns you, is that new research published in Science Direct suggests that Microplastics and PFAS, in concert, create an exponentially more toxic threat.
The enhanced toxic effects raise alarm because PFAS and microplastics are researched and regulated in isolation from one one another, but humans are virtually always exposed to both. The research also showed those fleas previously exposed to chemical pollution were less able to withstand the new exposures.
The findings “underscore the critical need to understand the impacts of chemical mixtures on wildlife and human health”, wrote the study’s authors, who are with the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom.
This poses an interesting challenge for pro-environmentalists promoting wind to save the biosphere. The mad rush to expand these energy platforms is an environmental and human hazard, as is their operation, use, and disposal. And now we’ve got a so-called green industry balking at having to address concerns or toxic shedding, which it claims is prevented by coating them with PFAS compounds.
All of this ends up in the ocean and environment and (very likely) in the food supply while the same people are losing their minds about PFAS contamination and regulating the crap out of the water supply.
All of this is supposed to be better than using more affordable and reliable fossil fuels, which have made improving lives and the environment possible, without which new energy products can’t be created.
