Wind power is a major component of global plans to reduce the use of dirty fuels and shift to more sustainable means of energy production to benefit the environment and human health. 

However, one Reddit user took to the r/conspiracy subreddit to challenge the sustainability of wind power and, without details, ranted about how much oil is used to build wind turbines.

"Green energy, sustainable energy, renewable energy … all of those terms sound so soothing," they began before shifting gears to promoting their generally uninformed claims about wind power in particular.  

"But why [do] none of those who push for this type of energy production ever mention how much oil is used up, and pollution created, in order to manufacture the components for wind turbines and others?" they added.

While it's true that oil and other dirty fuels that create planet-warming pollution are involved in component creation, transport, and maintenance for wind turbines, the overall impact is far lower than that of traditional power plants.

Researchers refer to the calculation of emissions associated with various methods of electricity generation as life cycle assessments. 

FactCheck.org shared the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's comparison and reported that life cycle emissions from wind energy are 37 times lower than natural gas and 77 times lower than coal. 

It also said that wind farms generate very few air pollutants such as particulate matter and ground-level ozone. 

The Redditor's open-ended questions continued without providing any information. 

"How [are] the parts from units that are going out of service being disposed of? How green is that?" they asked. 

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In fact, 80% to 94% of a wind turbine's mass consists of easily recyclable materials such as steel, iron, aluminum, and copper. Many of the remaining materials are fiber composites from carbon and glass. 

Services such as Carbon Rivers have managed to get 99.9% recycled glass fiber purity from end-of-life waste streams, including decommissioned wind turbine blades and nacelles. 

The recycling of carbon fiber has also seen breakthroughs in reclamation efficiency, while many have found novel second-life uses for the material.  

Commenters were generally restrained in their feedback, with one questioning why we should ditch green energy efforts if there's any negative impact.

"This is throwing the baby out with the bathwater, renewables aren't perfect but they're a necessary stopgap for the future we're heading towards. Granted I'd say nuclear is a more reliable stopgap but people don't want to have that conversation," they said. 

Another addressed the obvious disparity between wind energy and burning dirty fuels, saying, "It's far less [than] what we burn in a power planet to produce the same amount of energy."

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