@susieq : Any comparisons to go with that figure? Coal and it's costs, both to produce and to mine; nuclear and the costs of a potential failure? Just an honest question, not a challenge.

Estimates of up to a million or more birds a year are killed by turbines in the US but that is far exceeded by collisions with communications towers (6.5 million); power lines, (25 million); windows (up to 1 billion); and cats (1.3 to 4.0 billion) and those lost due to habitat loss, pollution and climate change
- Sierra ClubExisting research shows that building and operating offshore turbines can affect birds, fish, and marine mammals in various ways-though are as disruptive as an oil spill or the cumulative impacts of climate change accelerated by burning fossil fuels, experts say.Jan 21, 2022
Bird + Whale + Turbine | Sierra Clubhttps://www.sierraclub.org

@Blackbird : The article I read was just about the proposed cost of building the windmills. I will try to do some more research, of course the answers are out there.

@susieq : The problem is just about anything we do is going to a negative effect on wildlife. I'm not ready to go back to the stone age, though! And even then, whole forests were decimated for firewood and lumber.

I have wondered why states, California for example, do not build de-sal plants to provide the water they need. Saudi Arabia uses this as a major source of drinkable water.

@susieq : There is a plant north of San Diego, along the Pacific Coast.
I've family living there and that's what I hear, also about the constant drought conditions.Thanks for your mention, it made me look up desalination.
An interesting innovation it is.

@Txtoast : Yes, it is. In Saudi, all of our water came from the desal plant. Each compound had water, but it was brought in by tanks and was brackish. We went to the plant and filled out 5 gallon containers every week for drinking.

It poured in Pasadena this afternoon. We are talking puddles on the road rain. Wish we had gotten some of it.