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May 17

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Lower Austria halts the expansion of any more wind farms! A victory!!

Tip of the hat to the group No More Wind Turbines  for this find.

Austrian Independent — May 17, 2013

The ÖVP of Lower Austria announced that they would stop the expansion of wind farms. The interest group IG Windkraft strongly criticises this as they claim that the law undermines the turning point of energy.

According to the new Spatial Planning Law, wind farms cannot be built everywhere any longer. The government of Lower Austria does not want to permit any more wind farms until the law has come into power. This could take up to two years.

The managing director of IG Windkraft, Stefan Moidl, thinks that this takes too long: “This threatens the development of projects and jobs in Lower Austria.

“It is an endangerment for the scientific development and the positive environmental effects of wind power”, Mr Moidl stated.

The Environmental Umbrella Organisation was disappointed that the interest group does not stick to cooperative decisions. President Gerhard Heilingbrunner said that a limit for wind farms was necessary.

The responsible state councillor Stephan Pernkopf (ÖVP) promises that planned projects will be examined thoroughly. However, he said that some wind farm operators ran from one village to the next and thought they could put up a new wind farm on every hill.

“This will not happen. We will review the regulations and there will be clear conditions for the future”, Mr Pernkopf explained.

May 17

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Wind Performing Badly

From Master Resource:

Lisa Linowes — May 16, 2013

“The claim that wind projects in the U.S. are achieving 30% average capacity factors nationally [are] … not meaningful when considering that state RPS mandates are based on local resources. For states like New York and Pennsylvania, where average capacity factors are in the low- to mid- 20% range, many more wind turbines and related infrastructure (transmission) will be needed to meet RPS mandates than originally forecasted, resulting in increased costs and impacts.

Couple this with the fact that wind production in most states is seasonal with summer months producing at half that of winter months and also concentrated during periods of low demand (night time) — much of the energy arrives as excess energy making it less useful.”

This week, the U.S. Department of Energy announced it was revisiting the conclusions of its 2008 report, 20% Wind Energy by 2030.

The study, produced in cooperation with the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) and other stakeholders, explored a modeled energy scenario in which wind could supply 20% of the nation’s electricity by 2030. DOE made clear in the report that the 20% scenario was neither a prediction nor a goal, but, for wind proponents, the study served as the foundation for ongoing advocacy.

20% wind power by 2030 became a call to action and more. Absent a national renewables standard, AWEA heralded the 20% as a de facto mandate for wind.

The industry insists it’s on track to reach 20% wind (up from 4% today), but such claims are neither realistic nor wise. Despite explosive growth in new wind installations in the last five years alone, [1] challenges to further development have become more evident and will ultimately limit wind’s expansion.

An Unpopular Wind

Continue reading, here….

May 17

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‘Gas Plant Scandal’ Should Have Some Possibly Looking At Doing Time In The Slammer – Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak

Doug Draper — Niagara at Large — May 16, 2013

The Ontario Liberal government’s decision two years ago to cancel plans for gas-fired power plants in Oakville and Mississauga is enough of a “scandal” to justify the same kind of judicial inquiry that has been investigating and charging politicians in Quebec over corrupt dealings involving public contracts, said Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak during a telephone conference for the media that Niagara At Large participated in this May 16.

“I think we need a judicial inquiry into this gas plant scandal,” said Hudak, who leads Ontario’s official opposition party, during the teleconference.

“Perjury and destroying public documents is a criminal offense,” Hudak said before adding that “maybe the threat of having jail cell doors shut behind them” will cause the reigning Liberals in Ontario to be more forthcoming about who exactly was responsible and how much of the province’s tax money – possibly above and beyond the $585 million already disclosed – on closing these plant projects down.  Continue reading, here….

May 17

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Clearview Township — “Let’s say no to wind turbines”

Michael Gennings — Simcoe County News — May 16, 2013

Clearview Township councillor Thom Paterson will put a motion before council at its June 10 meeting stating the municipality is not willing to host industrial wind turbines.

Paterson advised colleagues Monday night that he would bring the motion before them at the upcoming meeting.

He’d like to see “thoughtful” debate about the motion before council decides how to proceed with it.

He said that in coming to office Premier Kathleen Wynne stated her government won’t force wind turbine projects on municipalities that don’t want them and so Clearview should make its position known.

Currently there is a controversial wind turbine project proposed for just west of Stayner and another contentious project that could be built between Singhampton and Dunedin.

The Creemore-area councillor said he’s not against green energy but does have concerns about the Green Energy Act.

Paterson said it’s not right that municipalities have no approval authority regarding green energy projects, adding his motion will call on the province to change this. 

“Green energy is not wrong for our community,” he said. “But the arbitrary placement is.”  Continue reading, here….

 

May 17

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Wind turbines are spoiling Scotland natural beauty, worry conservationists

Auslan Cramb — Telegraph UK — May 16, 2013

Man-made structures can now be seen from at least 70 per cent of Scotland, with a recent five per cent increase in the area affected by development being blamed on the spread of wind turbines.

An official report from Scottish Natural Heritage, the environment agency, found that the figure had risen from 65 per cent in 2008 to 70 per cent by 2010.

However, according to anti-wind farm campaigners, the situation may now be much worse, with one suggesting that 80 per cent of the country could soon be blighted.

The report on the “visual influence of built development”, which considers the impact of structures including roads, railways, bridges, airfields and tall buildings, singled out wind farms as the cause of the recent change.

It revealed that turbines were visible from 19.9 per cent of Scotland in 2008, with the figure jumping to 31.6 per cent the following year, and to 35.6 per cent by 2010.  Continue reading and view graphics, here….

May 17

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National Geographic: Wind Turbines drag down Power Potential

David LaGesse — National Geographic — May 16, 2013

As seemingly limitless as the air that swirls around us, wind has proven to be the world’s fastest-growing source of renewable energy. Backers suggest wind power can continue growing as quickly as companies can raise turbines to capture it.

 

But some scientists are challenging that assumption, arguing that the laws of physics will limit wind’s potential for meeting the world’s energy needs. The controversy arises from the turbines themselves. “As soon as you start to put turbines into the wind, you start to change the resource,” said Amanda Adams, a meteorologist who conducts atmospheric modeling at the University of North Carolina Charlotte. (See related quiz: “What You Don’t Know About Wind Energy.”)

In several recent published studies, Adams and other researchers have explored the issue of turbines stealing energy from the wind, creating drag or a “wind shadow” of air slowed by the spinning blades. Each turbine added to a particular landscape captures less energy. “You reach a point that if you add any more turbines, you get no more energy,” Adams said.

Developers of wind farms recognize the risk, so they carefully space turbines to prevent one from robbing wind speed from another. But today’s wind farms are small compared to the giant complexes needed to meet a significant slice of the world’s energy needs. (See related story: “Sizing Up Wind Energy: Bigger Means Greener, Study Says.”)

Adams and colleagues argue that when wind farms get big enough, they won’t be able to avoid the wind-shadow effect.

Wind has a future, and even the pessimists’ projections suggest that there is plenty of room to grow today’s generating capacity, said David Keith, a Harvard applied physicist who recently co-authored a paper with Adams. But he argues that if the effects are as severe as projected, wind can’t be counted on to provide a significant share of energy needs. The Adams-Keith paper, “Are global wind power resource estimates overstated?” was published earlier this year inEnvironmental Research Letters. Theirs is still a controversial view among scientists, and the American Wind Energy Association dismisses the doubts as the product of “crude theoretical modeling techniques.”

But better modeling may become necessary, because the wind energy industry faces a number of well-recognized and practical limitations on where it can site farms—due to the need to capture the best resources, to steer clear of community opposition, and even bird migration routes. Research into the wind-shadow effect may grow in importance as the world seeks to expand renewable power while limiting placement of large energy installations. (See related pictures: “Flying Wind Turbines Reach for High-Altitude Power.”)   Continue reading, here….

 

May 15

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PERFECT for the GTHA shoreline!!!

Can’t you just see the splendour of these towering giants all along the GTHA shoreline!!??  Right from Hamilton to Oshawa.  Look at the people at the base of these things.  And they could have a graffiti contest to  help gussy them up!

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Shot from another angle.  Thanks Wainfleet for the pic.

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See the tiny specks way down at the base of these things. Those are people. Not sure how relaxing these beaches would be for anyone with 100 foot long blades spinning over their heads.

May 15

Wind Energy Fatality Study Published

Reblogged from Turtle Talk:

K. Shawn Smallwood has published "Comparing bird and bat fatality-rate estimates among North American wind-energy projects" in the Wildlife Society Bulletin. Here is the abstract:

Estimates of bird and bat fatalities are often made at wind-energy projects to assess impacts by comparing them with other fatality estimates. Many fatality estimates have been made across North America, but they have varied greatly in field and analytical methods, monitoring duration, and in the size and height of the wind turbines monitored for fatalities, and few benefited from scientific peer review.

Read more… 209 more words

May 15

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UK — Walkers had a narrow escape as blades on a wind turbine ripped off in high winds

Windturbine blades 17 metres long ripped off in high winds

Halifax Courier / UK — May  9, 2013

Walkers had a narrow escape as blades on a wind turbine ripped off in high winds across common moor land.

The 17m turbine blades split and scattered across Ovenden Moor Wind Farm, Cold Edge Road, Wainstalls, Halifax.

Walkers and local residents were stunned at what could have been a nasty accident and fear for further blade breakages.

Energy provider E-on has a total of 23 wind turbines which tower at 32 metres tall on Ovenden Moor Wind Farm.

After the accident, a workman erected a safety fence around the turbine and a sign saying “danger, falling objects” was attached to the moor entrance gate.

Sue Midgley, 37, of Spring Mill Fold, Wainstalls, was out walking with Ann. “I couldn’t believe what we saw, it was frightening having to continue walking across the land.”

Ann said: “At any minute more of the blades could shatter and who knows how long it will be until other turbine blades break – with disastrous consequences.

“It’s public land. More must be done to protect the people.”   Continue reading, here….

May 15

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World Wide Anti-turbine Group list tops 1,000 !!!

Thanks to everyone from around the globe who submitted the names of their anti-turbine group for our Wind Warrior list as well as the names of their associate groups.  We have now topped 1,000 and the list continues to grow daily.  There’s unity in numbers and if our global list is any indication, our fight will only get stronger.

Stay strong, stay committed.  Our battle has a long way to go.

May 15

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Wind Energy Comes at a Cost borne by Eagles, Hawks, Falcons and Owls

Marc Lallanilla — Live Science.com — May 14, 2013

Wind energy is frequently touted as a clean, green source of energy that can reduce our dependence on fossil fuels.

But like all sources of energy, wind power comes at a cost — one that’s too often borne by eagles, hawks, falcons, owls and other birds.

Wind turbines kill more than 573,000 birds each year in the United States, according to The Associated Press, including federally protected species like bald eagles and golden eagles. [In Photos: Birds of Prey]

Even bats are falling victim to wind-turbine blades: The Pennsylvania Game Commission estimates that more than 10,000 bats are killed in the state each year by wind turbines, theWall Street Journal reports.

Of course, birds die from other causes, too: Structures like glass-walled office buildings and utility towers, vehicular collisions and carnivorous animals (including domestic cats) kill far more birds each year than wind turbines do.

Though it can appear as though they’re turning at a slow, almost relaxed pace, wind-turbine blades actually move very rapidly: The outer tips of some turbines’ blades can reach speeds of 179 mph (288 kilometers per hour) and can easily slice off an eagle’s wing.

And when hawks, falcons and eagles are flying, they’re usually looking down at the ground for prey, not glancing up to watch for a knifelike blade whipping down on them from above.

“There is nothing in the evolution of eagles that would come near to describing a wind turbine,” Grainger Hunt, a raptor specialist with the Peregrine Fund, told the AP. “There has never been an opportunity to adapt to that sort of threat.”

Compounding the problem is the design of some wind turbines: The lattice work found on older models makes an ideal perch for larger birds of prey, so they’re attracted to the same spires that are also a death trap.

Wind-farm siting is another factor. Many wind farms, like the Altamont Pass Wind Farm in northern California, were constructed in the middle of important migratory routes and are surrounded by prime raptor habitat.  Continue reading, here……

May 15

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Group urges wind-turbine motion from Cobourg

Cecillia Nasmith — Northumberland Today — May 14, 2013

COBOURG - With not enough yet known about their health effects and no meaningful property-setback standards yet in place, the Alliance for the Protection of the Northumberland Hills urged Cobourg council this week to pass a motion in opposition to wind turbines.

Cougar Global Investments vice-chair Gwyer Moore and chartered accountant Tyne Bonebakker represented the group in making the plea.

Moore explained that their focus is on the potential impact of industrial wind turbines in Northumberland, and that they hoped to make council aware of the indirect costs of this alternative energy source.

With all the experts not yet in agreement on potential effects, he said, the only sensible recourse at this time is to request the province to declare a moratorium until property-setback and health concerns can be addressed.

Moore set out the problem as it stands.

The Green Energy Act of 2009 specifically removed municipal controls on the approval process for wind turbines, he said, and set aside environmental protections previously afforded by law to the Oak Ridges Moraine (part of which is in Northumberland County).

In spite of concerns expressed by resident groups (and a petition with almost 900 signatures), the Ontario Power Authority backed projects in Centreton and Grafton. The projects have since been cancelled for economic reasons, but the contracts remain valid and can be awarded elsewhere.

“Unless we establish ourselves as a community that does not support the concept of wind turbines, we run the risk of having them appear in multiple areas of the county,” Moore said.

Environmental risks Bonebakker explored include potential damage to the moraine.

“Wind turbines are an industrial form of development, and completely inconsistent with that philosophy,” he said.

Bonebakker also explained the lure of the wind turbines to land owners, who can be paid up to $50,000 a year per turbine for up to 20 years.

“That means, if you get one of those contracts, you’re an instant millionaire. If you get two or three on your property, you are no longer interested in farming,” he said.

“The people next door will have the privilege of looking at these towers for the next 20 years, and it is virtually guaranteed that the property values of their land will be highly compromised.”    Continue reading, here…..

May 14

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Government: Eagle deaths from wind turbines are a justifiable trade off

Dina Cappiello — Associated Press — May 14, 2013

Watch video here:   http://news.yahoo.com/video/wind-energy-push-leaves-trail-112548725.html

CONVERSE COUNTY, Wyo. (AP) — It happens about once a month here, on the barren foothills of one of America’s green-energy boomtowns: A soaring golden eagle slams into a wind farm’s spinning turbine and falls, mangled and lifeless, to the ground.

Killing these iconic birds is not just an irreplaceable loss for a vulnerable species. It’s also a federal crime, a charge that the Obama administration has used to prosecute oil companies when birds drown in their waste pits, and power companies when birds are electrocuted by their power lines.

But the administration has never fined or prosecuted a wind-energy company, even those that flout the law repeatedly. Instead, the government is shielding the industry from liability and helping keep the scope of the deaths secret.

Wind power, a pollution-free energy intended to ease global warming, is a cornerstone of President Barack Obama’s energy plan. His administration has championed a $1 billion-a-year tax break to the industry that has nearly doubled the amount of wind power in his first term.

But like the oil industry under President George W. Bush, lobbyists and executives have used their favored status to help steer U.S. energy policy.

The result is a green industry that’s allowed to do not-so-green things. It kills protected species with impunity and conceals the environmental consequences of sprawling wind farms.

More than 573,000 birds are killed by the country’s wind farms each year, including 83,000 hunting birds such as hawks, falcons and eagles, according to an estimate published in March in the peer-reviewed Wildlife Society Bulletin.

Getting precise figures is impossible because many companies aren’t required to disclose how many birds they kill. And when they do, experts say, the data can be unreliable.

When companies voluntarily report deaths, the Obama administration in many cases refuses to make the information public, saying it belongs to the energy companies or that revealing it would expose trade secrets or implicate ongoing enforcement investigations.

Nearly all the birds being killed are protected under federal environmental laws, which prosecutors have used to generate tens of millions of dollars in fines and settlements from businesses, including oil and gas companies, over the past five years.

“We are all responsible for protecting our wildlife, even the largest of corporations,” Colorado U.S. Attorney David M. Gaouette said in 2009 when announcing Exxon Mobil had pleaded guilty and would pay $600,000 for killing 85 birds in five states, including Wyoming.

The large death toll at wind farms shows how the renewable energy rush comes with its own environmental consequences, trade-offs the Obama administration is willing to make in the name of cleaner energy.  Continue reading, here….

May 13

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Wind companies fatten their pockets at the expense of our health and quality of life — Luann Therrien

Would like to thank First Wind and Sheffield, Vermont for providing my family with too many sleepless nights to count. (sarcasm)  Our family is just one sacrifice of big wind and government. Who can we hold responsible for our torture? The wind companies are backed by the government.

We are being made sick (sleep deprivation, feeling sea sick, so on) and the powers that be could care less. Wind companies pockets are being fattened from tax payers pockets so they are not about to admit there is a problem and make things right.

My name is Luann Therrien and I live in Sheffield with my husband Steve and our two children.

Have no idea what we have done or who we’ve done it to to deserve what we are being put through. But I do know that no one at the Government level has reached out to us to try and help us. We keep reaching out and mostly the response back has been mostly silence.

We have contacted-First Wind-numerous times. Our Governor, Senators, Congress, Meadows End- a company that owns land where some of the turbines are sited. The town of Sheffield and The President of the United States.Mostly the response is-So sorry for your situation, but there is nothing we can do. Or We cannot set precident by helping you. So basically…. SUCK IT UP!

Why hasn’t the Department of Health talked to us? Why haven’t they reached out to us to get a better understanding of what is happening to us and others living near turbines? Why has their response been as far as we can tell, nothing?

No one wants to take responsibility. Apparently we are to blame for choosing to live where we do. We consider ourselves to be hearty people. Living off grid and in the middle of no where is not easy but we love where we live.

We have lived at our home in Sheffield, for 17 years. The land has been in my husbands family since the 70′s.

Before the turbines were built, we felt we did not know enough about Industrial Wind to have an informed opinion. We did not oppose them being built. We did not oppose the many inconveniences during construction that comes with a project this size. We did not oppose the project, not until it was up and running and creating noise. Creating noise that unlike what the wind developers will try and make you believe- IS distinguishable above natural sounds. I have never heard anything in nature make a repetitive whoosh whoosh whoosh sound for up to five days straight. And the only thing I have heard sound like a jet flying overhead, except for these wind turbines, is a jet flying overhead. This has now been going on for over a year.

To have no one believe or understand just what we are going through is like being constantly beat down. Having people say we are making it up or worse yet putting the blame on having children. Until you live with what we are dealing with you can not understand what it is like to walk in our shoes. People have openly scoffed at us because they paid a visit to a project and think they have the slightest clue what it is like to live day after day, month after month beside a project. One person had the nerve to say they had visited a project and the noise was no worse than their dishwasher. Well, I guarantee if your dishwasher was to run day and night you’d shut it off before five days were done.

We attended Sheffields Annual town meeting and were shunned by many. By people who had previously been friendly with us. Had one person tell me every Sheffield resident is benefiting equally from the projects wind fall. That is all well and good. But not every resident is suffering equally.

It has been said that with all power comes sacrifice and problems. The problem is, my family and other families are the sacrifice.

In order to stop the continuing damage to our health and sanity we will have to sacrifice the land where we have lived, loved and planned to spend the rest of our lives. But when it comes to sacrificing our dreams or ourselves there really is no choice. We may have no choice but to sell out for whatever we can get just so we can move. Not only will we have to give up the land that we love but also at a reduced price.

Most of the time we can hear a mechanical humming, wind direction does not matter. The noise for us is at its worst when the wind is coming from the South/SouthEast. When we are not getting the worst of it, other families are. The prospect of more storm systems blowing up the coast is about as frustrating as the noise itself. Know it’s coming and not a thing we can do about it.

My husband is feeling desperate because there is nothing he can do to protect his family. I’ve been feeling more agitated and working on unreasonable. Not a good combination with two little ones.

Since November both my husband and myself have been prescribed antidepressants. I honestly had no idea just how bad I had gotten because it came on gradually. Didn’t realize how bad I had gotten until one day my son said something that made me laugh out loud. It was then the realization hit me that I had not done that in a long time and have not done much since, even with an increase in my medication. I used to laugh all the time, dance with my children and make up silly songs. I want to do these things again.

I have a constant ringing in my ears that can be very distracting. This is caused by infrasound, the sounds and vibrations we cannot hear. My husband has been feeling so bad that he is currently unable to work, his doctor has pulled him from his job. It’s impossible to work when you cannot concentrate due to lack of sleep, a constant pulsing in your head like a painless migraine and have the constant feeling of a head rush no matter what you are doing. He wakes up startled during the night in a panic state and can not go back to sleep. Being pulled from his job being unfit to work means he cannot collect unemployment. We have been living very frugaly off of our income tax return. This money will run out, not sure what we will do then.

Both of us have a lack of concentration. Many days we have this odd pressure in our heads. Can feel the pressure in our foreheads, cheeks even in the front teeth with a feeling of pressure as if something is pressing on the bridge of the nose.Many mornings we wake with the feeling of motion sickness.

We know if we do not feel well, our children do not feel well. They cannot tell us verbally, but they do in other ways. We see a noticeable change in our son’s behavior. He goes from being a normally active 3 year old with an attitude problem to an unreasonable uncontrollable active 3 year old with an attitude problem, that doesn’t end because he goes to sleep. Most nights both of our children have restless nights and both regularly cry out in their sleep. We have no idea what kind of permanent may potentially be being done.

We are getting so tired of feeling like hell everyday. We feel as bad when we get up as when we go to bed. Frustrating isn’t even the right word to described how it feels to get up in the morning already feeling tired, angry and agitated.

Our children deserve better. We deserve better.

We went through hell to have our children. It certainly was not my choice to have our first child at 40. We went through loss (one at five months along), tests, and operations. On our fifth try we had a healthy boy, and we now have a one year old baby girl. And instead of the joy of raising our babies, there is a feeling of being helpless and hopeless.

Helpless to protect our children from the Industrial Wind Project that has been built behind our home. Unable to protect them from the constant noise, annoyance and sleepless nights with all the side effects that go along with

We have contacted First Wind. Their only worry is that they are in compliance, and cannot set precedent by giving a homeowner money. We told them we would need $100,000 to $150,000 to move a doublewide home (low end) onto a lot in Derby. This was not to buy us out, it was to move us away from their 16 Industrial Wind Factories. They say they are in compliance and everything is fine.

Some pro wind experts say 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile is too close, other studies say 1.5 miles is too close. The 16 turbines are all from just under 3/4 of a mile (5 are under a mile) to just under 2 miles from our home. The human factor of living with the constant annoyance of these machines does not matter to the wind companies.

Humans are being used as experimental guinea pigs and this is extremely unethical to impose a health risk on a community, without rigorous tests first. Turbines are huge industrial machines whose effects on humans have NOT been proven and therefore should not be placed next to human habitation until extensive tests are carried out.

You don’t have to be a scientist or researcher to know, that putting a site of industrial size turbines next to humans is not an ideal situation for anybody. We need more research before any more sitings close to humans are carried out. No human should have this inflicted on them, we wouldn’t impose any other sort of industrial machine next to homes but wind turbines are all about politicians showing “green” credentials and large companies and wealthy landowners making fortunes out of tax payers money, consequently ordinary people are being trampled over in the wind rush.

May 13

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Seven Big Reasons Why Wind Turbines Blow

Steffanie Petroni — Local2 Sault Ste. Marie — May 13, 2013

“When you look at the ongoing statements that are made by the Canadian Wind Energy Association and by developers- such as the developers of the Goulais Wind Project, they make comments to the effect that wind power will provide energy for 60,000 homes. What they don’t say is ‘only when the wind blows’. It’s not exactly truth in advertising.”

Like the majority of the Canadian population, George Browne honestly admits that when the Liberal government pushed through their plan to develop a wind farm in Prince Township, like the common ratepayer, he was pleased.

George and his wife, Catherine Bayne, live just south of Montreal River on Mica Bay and they’re off the grid. “I’m not against renewable energy. I’ve got solar panels and a little wind turbine which doesn’t work very well.”

Two years ago a notice went up in his village on the post office bulletin board informing the area residents that there was going to be a wind project near Montreal River on Bow Lake. Bow Lake is a beautiful and virtually untouched area.

George was alarmed and began to research in depth the scientifically proven impact of wind turbines. He correlated seven facts, which are supported by scientific and peer reviewed research, that expose the harmful impact of wind turbines and the persistent erroneous statements made by government and developers that perpetuates the misconceptions about the real costs of renewable energy upon the ratepayer. 1. Wind does not provide reliable, predictable on demand electricity.

Because the wind blows when it wants to there needs to be a back-up to supplement energy demands when the wind isn’t blowing. The only type of generation that can respond quickly enough, to avoid brown outs, is natural gas. The more wind energy assigned to the grid means more use of natural gas to produce electrical generation to compensate for the variability in electricity from wind plants. For sellers of natural gas this is a jackpot.

The Prince Wind Farm has 128 wind turbines. Between 2007 and 2012 the wind farm produced 27.5% of its rated capacity, 47% of the time it produced less than 15% of its rated capacity and for 10% of the year the wind farms produced nothing. This means that wind farms are consuming power from the grid in order to operate turbine heaters, fans, computers and hydraulic motors. Further, data indicates that when the wind does blow it is when demand is low and when the wind doesn’t blow, the demand for electricity is high.

The two tables below demonstrate the disparity between demand and wind production.  Continue reading, here…..

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