The wake effect: As wind farms expand, some can ‘steal’ each others’ wind

Wind rights and ownership

• Several comments connect the article’s “wind theft” framing to emerging concepts of “wind rights,” comparing them to water or air rights.
• Upwind farms reducing the available resource for downwind farms is seen as a classic shared‑resource/ownership problem, similar to upstream dams reducing downstream hydropower or trees/shadows affecting neighbors’ solar panels.
• Some foresee the need for clearer legal frameworks as density of wind development increases.

Physics of wake effects

• Commenters note that slower wind downstream is basic energy conservation but emphasize the magnitude and distance (wakes up to ~100 km, ~10% reductions) as the non‑obvious and policy‑relevant part.
• There’s debate over whether turbines “stop the wind” entirely (rejected by others) versus partially extracting energy.
• Some propose national- or basin‑scale optimization of wind farm siting to account for wakes.

Scale, climate, and ecological impacts

• One side argues the extractable fraction of global wind energy at turbine height is large compared to current human use, so environmental impact from extraction is small.
• Others worry that assuming “tiny effects” risks repeating past mistakes (e.g., fossil fuels) and ask about impacts on birds, insects, local climate, and global circulation.
• Responses claim measurable but minor meteorological changes (e.g., soil drying), and note bird mortality from turbines is small relative to buildings, cats, and pollution; mitigation ideas like painting a blade are mentioned.

Economics and investment risk

• A key dispute: is a 2–3% wake-related production loss trivial or potentially fatal to project economics?
• Some argue that for capital-intensive offshore projects with thin margins, a few percent can erase profit, especially if a new upwind farm wasn’t in the original risk model.
• Others counter that this level of uncertainty is normal, often already modeled, and mainly affects marginal projects rather than the overall build-out.

Politics, perception, and aesthetics

• Several comments see “wind theft” narratives and complaints about waste oil, non‑recyclable blades, etc., as part of a broader, sometimes ideological anti‑wind backlash, likened to how nuclear became a “dirty word.”
• NIMBY resistance and culture‑war opposition are highlighted.
• Aesthetic objections are voiced: wind farms are said to “industrialize” previously open landscapes, especially in rural plains.