Here’s a couple of pieces penned by boys who start from the right end of the great wind power fraud equation.
Randy T. Simmons, Ph.D., is director of the Institute for Political Economy and professor of political economy at Utah State University. He also serves as president of Strata Policy, a public policy think tank in Logan. Jordan Lofthouse is a policy analyst at Strata Policy.
Governments that have drunk the wind industry “Kool Aid” (see our post here) can never front up to the first hard question: what happens in the power generation market when the wind does what it’s done since the dawn of time (ie stop blowing)?
And, having fudged on that less than minor issue, are all at sea when it comes to the second “biggy”: if power consumers and taxpayers are being hit-up for $billions to subsidize a technology that was abandoned in the 19th Century for obvious reasons (see our post here), then just what are they actually getting in return?
STT has always thought that that little pair of posers, are both fair and fatal. As laid out in these pieces, it becomes painfully obvious that, as a meaningful power source, wind power is simply patent nonsense; and that gouging $billions in a Never Ending Subsidy Story (see our post here) is nothing short of State sponsored theft.
Stop dumping billions into unreliable wind power
The Salt Lake City Tribune
Randy T. Simmons and Jordan Lofthouse
7 March 2015
During George W. Bush’s administration, the Department of Energy set a wildly unrealistic goal to have 20 percent of the nation’s electricity come from wind by 2030. Now, the Obama Administration wishes to fulfill that goal by passing permanent subsidies for wind power.
Wind power has gained a reputation as the future of energy generation, but few wind power advocates seem willing to answer the pertinent question, “What happens when the wind doesn’t blow?” Honestly answering that question means we must acknowledge how undeniably unreliable wind power is. The next logical step should be to stop dumping tens of billions of taxpayer dollars into such a fickle energy source.
In 2014, wind energy only supplied 1.6 percent of total U.S. energy consumption. But, with the growing list of tax incentives, subsidies, federal goals and mandates for wind, we must consider all the implications of boosting wind’s market share.
The first problem with wind is inconsistency. Wind’s inability to supply electricity on a consistent basis renders it dependent on more reliable sources of energy for backup, such as nuclear, coal and natural gas. Wind energy can supplement these conventional sources, but it’s not capable of supplying the base load of power that the country needs.
The inconsistency of wind power also forces us to “cycle” coal, natural gas and hydropower generators in the background so that we can kick them into high gear when the wind stops blowing. Cycling presents its own set of economic and environmental problems, but this is the only way grid operators can drastically increase electricity output whenever demand increases unexpectedly.
The second problem with wind is its low productivity. The amount of energy a wind farm actually produces on average pales in comparison to the energy that it could at full capacity. Wind power only produces its full capacity 20 to 40 percent of the time, as opposed to 70 to 90 percent for coal-fired power, or 60 to 100 percent for nuclear power.
The third problem with wind is the inordinate amount of space required to produce a reasonable amount of energy. Consistent wind blowing at the right speed would require an area about the size of Texas to meet 2005 U.S. electricity demands. However, because wind rarely blows at an optimal speed, much more space would be needed. Are Americans willing to give up the same land area as entire states to reach the DOE’s goal of 20 percent wind power by 2030?
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