Wind power and “nasty fibres”: facts from lawyer Thomas Mock
Source: Assoc. Prof. Dr Stephan Sander-Faes , TKP.at, 15 Aug 2024
Last week, we discussed the potential health risks posed by wind turbines (TKP reported). This current post is about officially known documents that lawyer Thomas Mock submitted to the Lower Saxony state parliament last year in the form of an expert report. Part two concerns the dangers of the “green turnaround” for humans, animals and the environment, which had hardly been recognised until then.
Today we delve deeper into this topic and take a look at an expert report submitted to the North Rhine-Westphalian state parliament. The author of this report is lawyer Thomas Mock, it is dated 2 March 2023 and was commissioned by the Gesellschaft für Fortschritt in Freiheit e.V., a self-proclaimed “liberal” think tank.
The source can be found here, the following excerpts (pp. 44-54) have been highlighted by me.
Microparticle erosion by wind rotors
The growing dangers from microparticles caused by abrasion on the rotors also justifies maintaining the 1000 metre distance. In view of the health risks generally posed by microparticles, it goes without saying that they are also posed by microparticles from wind rotors, which affect the property and health of local residents as well as areas where food is grown and where significant, continuously increasing contamination by various microparticles occurs over decades of operation. The operation of wind turbines due to the natural and unavoidable abrasion/erosion/delamination of toxic microparticles from rotor surfaces, regardless of the surface protection provided, especially on the rotor beads that are most exposed to wind and weather, can stand in the way of authorisation, as the risk of significant damage to health from such thoroughly toxic and harmful particle inputs is disproportionate and unreasonable, Art. 2, 20 a GG and can endanger the existence of an agricultural business, Art. 14 GG. In view of the large surface areas of today’s rotors and the usual average but unavoidable abrasion of microparticles of all sizes and the lifetime of rotors, a significant quantity of microparticles can already be assumed, which, due to their tiny size, can reach into the hundreds of thousands if not millions of particles. Locations in areas where food is grown or agricultural land are therefore ruled out per se…
Microparticle erosion, which is harmful to human health, is caused by significant erosion of the surfaces of today’s larger rotor blades and front rotor blade beads and, over the 20-25 years of operation, increasing contamination of the soil and surface water such as groundwater with toxic properties due to the carbon/GRP/CFRP materials used, including bisphenol-A, which is classified as life-threatening (according to the UBA), to the detriment of the health of local residents, especially the micro-fibres, which according to the UBA can even cause cancer. It is also fatal that such particles and fibres measure less than 2 millimetres, which is predominantly the case or can be assumed to be the case with fine-particle erosion, because why should erosion NOT produce small particles which, as shown in the following linked study on mice and human cell cultures, can overcome the protective blood-brain barrier and penetrate the brain. There they apparently accumulate in certain nerve cells, the microglia, influence the immune defence and lead to life-threatening inflammation. This is all state of the art science.
Here you can find the reference to the “state of the art”: “Potential utilization of dairy industries by-products and wastes through microbial processes: A critical review” in Science of The Total Environment 810, 1 March 2022, 15225
Today’s standard rotors with a length of approx. 80 m have a total surface area of 250 to 350 square metres. A wind turbine with three such rotors therefore has a total surface area of up to approx. 1,000 square metres.
This is a significant leap in rotor surface area compared to previous generations of turbines. Due to environmental influences such as UV radiation, wind, temperature changes (especially in the winter months), lightning strikes and large-scale insect adhesions on the surface in summer, wind turbine rotor blades are susceptible to erosion. Such erosion is characterised by more or less continuous wear and tear, cracking and similar signs of wear on the surfaces. These increase the higher the wind turbines that are erected. This is because the more aggressive weather up there and the much stronger winds at higher altitudes not only generate higher electricity yields to the third power, but also, in proportion to the more aggressive winds prevailing there (which are sought by the height of the turbine), higher wear and tear on the surfaces. This causes the aerodynamic properties of the blades to deteriorate, among other things. For this reason, the rotors must be regularly maintained, repaired and, if necessary, replaced.
The material of the rotors Carbon/GRP/CFRP
The materials carbon/GRP/CFRP used in the surfaces of today’s rotor blades are synthetically produced substances that do not occur in nature. They are characterised by the fact that they are simultaneously water-repellent (hydrophobic), grease-repellent (lipophobic) and dirt-repellent. Due to these special properties, they are used in many areas of industry. They are used, for example, in aeroplanes and cars to reduce weight in the military sector and in the wind industry. Due to their high stability, the chemical compounds of carbon/GFRP/CFRP are practically not destroyed by the usual degradation processes in the environment. Accordingly, they cannot be removed from the wastewater by the degradation processes commonly used in sewage treatment plants, which are essentially based on the use of microorganisms…
Carbon/GFRP/CFRP are toxic to humans and animals and are suspected of being toxic to reproduction and carcinogenic in high doses (including bisphenol-A) and are equated with asbestos (UBA 2020). Their direct effect on the body has not yet been studied. However, there is no doubt that they cause cancer. There is of course a need for research, as with all such substances. However, especially in the case of military accidents (crashes of aircraft with carbon/GRP/CFRP material) , the removal of residues contaminated with carbon/GRP/CFRP always involves considerable effort and only with the use of complete full-body protective suits (PPE) for the specialist personnel deployed and by removing/replacing the soil surface on and in which residues of the material are or could be found…
On the other hand, it is downright absurd that the people in whose vicinity such wind turbines are erected and who are exposed to such dangerous emissions from such particles to a significant extent over decades have to do so unprotected or are exposed to the dangerous consequences of these substances unprotected. They are kept ignorant of this and the responsible authorities do not even demand a forecast or investigations or monitoring to protect the residents, even if the turbine is to be erected only a few hundred metres from residential buildings or even directly next to areas for growing food.
The view of the wind industry
The Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy and Energy System Technology (IWES) is currently developing a test procedure that can be used to evaluate the resistance of various coating methods.
However, this is research and does not affect systems currently in operation. Even harder topcoat paints and other protective mechanisms can only delay or reduce wear and cause microparticles themselves. They cannot stop it due to the aggressive high-altitude winds and the prevailing wind and weather there, especially not with regard to the usual service life of the rotors of 20 to 25 years, insofar as the rotors achieve such a service life at all due to wear and do not have to be replaced in between due to excessive wear…
The detailed mechanism that leads to damage and material erosion on rotor blades is still an open question. However, erosion as such and the consequences of erosion to the detriment of the environment are undisputed.
This is why manufacturers do not share the data, thereby jeopardising the environment and the health of local residents. At the same time, new research shows the dramatic nature of erosion and erosion processes.
Neue Energie writes (my emphasis):
“Just recently, scientists from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) published a study in the journal Energies in which they estimated the erosion risk of 15 megawatt turbines along the German-Danish coast on the basis of detailed weather data. Their findings: along the North Sea coast, the leading edges of the rotor blades can withstand the impact of raindrops for around one and a half to three years. In the Baltic Sea region, the durability can be extended to around four years.”
The entire study can be found: Energies 2021,14,5974, “A Comprehensive Analysis…”,published on 20 Sept. 2021.
Further information is also available from Norway, via the study “Leading edge erosion of wind turbine blades: Understanding, prevention and protection“, which appeared in Renewable Energy 169 (2021).
The previously presented studies have estimated the quantities per year that are lost from the surfaces. They reach over 100 kilograms per rotor blade after just a few years, which can result in millions of microparticles. With three rotors, these values increase accordingly and even more with several turbines. These microparticles are dispersed by the wind within a radius of up to 1000 metres, as they are only detached from the rotor in the event of wind and its effects, and thus continuously and cumulatively contaminate the soil.
This also makes it possible to forecast the expected microparticle emissions over the lifetime of the rotors, as they can generally be estimated within a natural variance. The quantities are considerable, as the studies show, and pose a challenge for the BBodenSchG, among others. This is because huge areas of soil may have to be removed after decades of operation if the emissions are contaminated. However, this must be considered from the outset. Added to this is the growing sensitivity of the scientific community and legislators to such indisputably detrimental environmental influences due to the forthcoming tightening of legal regulations and limit values. This is likely to be particularly sensitive where the areas affected by microparticle input are used for food production. Without investigating and assessing this at an early stage in the procedures and, if licences can be granted at all, explicitly regulating it in the licences and, for example, requiring provisions for “worst-case scenarios.”
Despite these obvious scientifically proven facts, authorities refuse to carry out soil analyses or define conditions in the permits. The whole issue has been taboo for years, as if it didn’t exist. But it does exist and is a burning issue, especially in view of the planned nationwide expansion of such plants, which are increasingly polluting the environment, and especially in the present case, where these circumstances make it vital to have such prior investigations, forecasts and clarification in the event of damage.
Explanatory considerations
I strongly recommend that you read the rest of Attorney Mock’s expert opinion. The language is quite technical at times, but it’s definitely something to read up on, because if the powers that be have their way, these wind turbines – cancer-promoting contraptions – will soon be erected in all our neighbourhoods.
What the report omits, however, is what happens to offshore wind farms: As the same machinery and materials are involved, these toxic and carcinogenic “nasty fibres” are similarly dispersed into the environment and also ingested by marine fauna.
Asbestos, “nasty fibres” and all the other crap that is thrown around; the victims of this type of contamination are all living creatures on earth.
Perhaps there is a small glimmer of hope: I doubt that the globalist elites (and/or those behind them) know about these “problems” or that they will affect them too. Perhaps they will retreat from the abyss we are all facing.
If (a hypothetical assumption if there ever was one), and until they find out, we must fight this madness with every fibre of our being.
By Jahobr – CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=44444943, via Wikimedia Commons