July 4, 2007
California, Essays

Wind energy — do you believe everything that you've been told?

Alexandra Weit

For 25 years we’ve been told what a significant contribution wind energy could and is making to our energy supply. Since most people have little knowledge of how the electrical system works, they are being misled as to the benefits, merits and capabilities of wind power, unfortunately, most have believed what they have been told.

As a homeowner in the Pass for 30 years, and familiar with the wind patterns, I had reservations as to all the amounts of power that the wind developers claimed that they could generate and that this was even considered a “good’ wind area.

I began my research some years ago, as I became suspicious of all the claims made by this industry, by collecting data from many knowledgeable and reliable sources, as well as the California Energy Commission, which at one time published their actual production records.

The Wind Industry’s actual production records were so dismal and at variance with what they projected, they lobbied the CEC into not having to reveal their production records anymore.

Nevertheless, I still obtained 15 years of their production records and time of generation from 1998 until 2006. This data confirmed what I observed visually,
as I can see them from my house, when they work and mostly don’t. Every time the wind developers went to get another permit to put up more windmills, the developers always stated how many MW they were installing and how many homes they could provide energy for. What they would do is add all their generation as if it was generated 24/7 and divide it by the average household. This is very misleading and deceptive, as the records indicate:

Only 5-6% of their generation is at peak need time, 33% mid-peak and the balance of 60% when we need it the least; this off-peak generation is deemed as of lesser value, and we must keep in mind that they can only generate about 25% of their capacity, intermittently.

Another big drawback is that it is not constant. One minute it may be blowing and the next couple of weeks or months there may be none.

Even with the volatility of wind, windmills really don’t generate that much power. I became curious as to exactly how much power they were contributing to Edison.

These are the results:

But, it even gets worse.

They have scraped miles and miles of desert, obliterated our views, rendered adjacent property valueless and impacted us with noise and dust for this minuscule amount of useless energy … it is beyond belief. And they have so far gotten away with it.

The only transmission has been the $’s from our pockets to theirs.

Alexandra Weit
Whitewater, CA 92282
June 23, 2007


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/alerts/2007/07/04/wind-energy-do-you-believe-everything-that-youve-been-told/