answer:While there are ‘greener’ sources of energy, I don’t think there’s such a thing as ‘green’ energy. The Second Law of Thermodynamics guarantees that any energy used to provide work will produce ‘waste heat’. This waste heat is radiated into the environment. Let’s say we have a really efficient power plant that only lost 50% of the energy to waste heat. A 3Mwatt power station would lose 1.5Mwatt as heat. This is hardly ‘green’. Wind power is no different and, as the article shows, suffers from the NIMBY effect (Not In My Back Yard). Here in Wales, a proposal was made to put a wind farm out in the sea that would only just be visible. The protest against this ‘visual pollution’ killed the project. Earth is a wonderful place for humans to start. To be really ‘green’, humanity needs to move out into space. Waste heat can be disposed off easily and cheaply. There is no environment to be concerned about. Even the colonisation Mars and other bodies can use waste heat to make them a warmer place to live. However, the Second Law, when used on Earth, is a nasty thing. Even if you collect solar power in space, when you bring it down to Earth, you are again going to produce waste heat when that power is converted to motion. And, in all things, efficiencies are a ‘best case’ scenario. In practice, most machinery is not maintained to provide the absolute best possible efficiency. If the human race survives elegantly, we will move into space and let Earth become a ‘garden planet’ with a greatly reduced population. I think far afield of your original question but it was fun doing so! ;)