Pickens tells only part of story about wind energy
T. Boone Pickens doesn’t tell the whole story.
Wind energy is heavily subsidized by the taxpayer and profitability depends on subsidies. Since there is still no viable way to store large amounts of this energy, the utilities must provide reserve power in case the wind dies. Otherwise, there are power shortages and “brownouts.”
Fired generators still have to be “idling” and burning energy, and consumers will pay for this through higher electric rates, not the owners of the wind generators. Can you imagine 20 percent of the nation’s power dropping offline because the wind died down?
We need to have the leadership to “fast track” nuclear technology using existing infrastructure that can stand on its own economically, and supplement it with alternative energy as we figure out how to store the energy and reduce the “idling” generators.
We also need to conserve any way we can.
By the way, if Pickens is now a conservationist, why is he trying to sell Panhandle water downstate, thus enhancing the day that we’re left high and dry?
Dan Norman
Canyon
27 July 2008
Tags: Wind power, Wind energy
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