Re June 1 article, “Companies poised to profit from state wind power push,” by Jason Subik.
The very narrow perspective of this article is unfortunate for ordinary taxpayers and electric customers of New York. It’s clear he understands the perspective of the companies profiting from the governor’s ill-conceived emphasis on wind energy. However, it’s equally clear that he doesn’t understand that the governor’s plans add up to:
u A huge transfer of wealth from the pockets of ordinary citizens to a few large “wind farm” owners (often foreign owned) and a large outflow of dollars from New York’s economy.
u Diverting billions of capital investment dollars to energy projects (“wind farms”) that produce very little electricity – which is intermittent, volatile and unreliable. Further, that electricity is low in real value because of its unreliability and because it’s most likely to be produced at night in colder months, not on hot weekday afternoons when it’s most needed and its true value is highest.
u Building wind turbines is not a substitute for building reliable (“dispatchable”) generating plants that will be needed to meet New York’s growth in peak electricity demand and/or replace existing plants that must be retired.
Glenn R. Schleede
Round Hill, Va.
The writer is originally from Brockport, N.Y.
6 June 2008
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2008/06/06/wind-power-not-all-story-cracked-it-up-to-be/