What is the impact on the environment of "Green" energy?

A Wind blows across a hill, has done since time inmomorial, that wind is part of the global weather system, so someone comes along and builds a wind farm on the hill, most of the energy is removed from the wind, what effect does that have on the global weather system? Wave power, many years ago it was demonstrated that wave farms caused or increased costal erosion at a point some distance from the "farm". Geothermal, taking heat from the earths crust, what will be the long term effect of this accelerated cooling? Solar, the production cost of photovoltaic cells has been questioned elswhere but what about heat extraction. placing large solar powered boilers in the desert may seem like a good idea but what are the effects on the flora, fauna and geology of removing that heat source? maybe the sun will go out before the effects are apreciable but has anyone ever done any reasearch in to the down side of "green" energy?

Public Comments

1. all energy is the same, the waste that each type generates is the only difference...
2. I agree that the downsides of "green energy" should be researched. Let's just make sure we're not doing it to somehow prove that there isn't a need for green energy. Continuing with oil production without looking into alternatives is certainly a mistake. Whether or not there are downsides to green energy still doesn't address the problems that an oil dependent economy poses. Perhaps one green alternative that is foolproof is for everyone to consume a little less, buy locally, recycle (and by that I don't just mean thowing your plastic bottles in a recycling bin but actually reusing materials) and do what they can to make less of a global footprint.