Wind power: not free, not reliable

Last week the wind power industry lobby organization, the Canadian Wind Energy Association or CanWEA, put out a news release stating that wind power ought to be part of every government’s (or governments-in-waiting) energy strategy because it is inexpensive and reliable.
Not so, says this Alberta letter writer.

Wind power is neither reliable or inexpensive

By Letter to the Editor on May 17, 2014.
Re: Wind energy has proven to be reliable and cost competitive Herald May 6, 2014
Mr. Weis, representing the Canadian Wind Energy Association (CanWEA), told us that wind generation is reliable and inexpensive. Wind power is neither.
Weis failed to mention that over time, wind facilities produce a mere 32 per cent of their design capacity because they are so unreliable. Over the past half day, the output of wind turbines in Alberta has been less than one per cent of their design capacity! Reliable? And all of this “nothingness” for a few billion dollars? CanWEA also will not tell you that when the wind is blowing, coal and gas plants remain running to stabilize the power grid. As a result, there is little or no reduction of carbon dioxide.
You will recall the decades-old mantra, “Reduce. Reuse. Recycle.” However, installing wind facilities is the opposite of “reduce,” because wind farms duplicate existing generation capacity. They also require massive investments in new inefficient transmission lines. In 2012, Alberta Energy reported, “The existing capacity of the transmission system . . . is insufficient for additional wind-powered generation.” They estimated the cost, in the next four years, at $2.8 billion. Inexpensive? You and I will pay for these lines.
CanWEA does not want you to know that wind turbines are slaughtering thousands of bats and birds annually in Alberta. The Alberta government recently wrote, “Post-construction surveys (showed) . . . 16 bat mortalities per turbine.” Mitigation practices have been studied and proposed, but apparently best practices are not followed and wind companies are not monitoring mortalities at new wind facilities. If monitoring is being done, then animal deaths are being covered up by CanWEA members because they don’t want you to know the gory statistics.

“an expensive environmental scam paid for by Alberta’s citizens”

If we received actual economic or environmental benefits from wind turbines we would all support their development. But wind generation duplicates efficient conventional generation; wind facilities are expensive; wind generation does little or nothing to reduce emissions; wind generation compromises the stability of the power grid and turbines kill thousands of bats and birds in Alberta annually.
Reliable and inexpensive? Hardly. Wind electrical production is an expensive environmental scam paid for by Alberta’s citizens and businesses.
Clive Schaupmeyer

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