Wind power not such good bet
Many governments have found that wind power hasn’t lived up to the claims made for it by its advocates, and are now backing away from subsidising expensive wind power developments.
German domestic wind construction has drastically slowed. In 2005 their Energy Agency found that increasing the amount of wind power would hike consumer costs 3.7 times over alternatives; and that theoretical reduction of greenhouse gas emissions could be achieved more cheaply by installing filters on existing fossil-fuel plants.
Switzerland is cutting subsidies as too expensive for the low level of significant benefit.
The Danish government cancelled plans for three offshore wind farms planned for 2008, and has scheduled withdrawal of subsidies from existing sites.
Onshore wind plants in Denmark have effectively stopped.
Spain began withdrawing subsidies in 2002. From 2005, Spanish utilities began refusing new wind power connections. In 2006, by emergency decree, the Spanish government ended its subsidies for wind power.
Many Japanese utilities severely limit the amount of wind-generated power they buy, because of the grid instability they cause.
In December, 2003, Ireland halted all new wind-power connections to the national grid, concluding that the cost of carbon dioxide abatement arising from using large levels of wind energy is high, relative to other alternatives. Wake up, New Zealand. Learn from the mistakes made by those who have been in the wind farming business far longer than us?
Madalene Frost
Taihape
25 June 2009
Tags: Wind power, Wind energy
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