Turbine output numbers are false predictions
The Manitoulin Expositor, www.manitoulin.ca 18 August 2010
The Manitoulin Expositor, www.manitoulin.ca 18 August 2010
One hundred and thirteen years ago, on July 17, 1897, The Portland docked in Seattle with some very rich prospectors. On board was over a ton of gold valued over a million dollars. This sparked the Klondike Gold Rush.
Between the discovery in August 1896 and the conclusion in 1898, 100,000 men flooded the Klondike hoping to get rich quick. The result was a very few rich men, the Han Hwech’in First Nations people displaced and disillusioned, and an environment still scarred 113 years later.
Fast forward: Ontario passed the Green Energy Act and a “gold rush” is happening again. Large companies from around the world are carving Ontario’s windy locations into little pieces. The Ontario Government assists with subsidies and initiatives. They propose covering our rural landscape with electricity-generating 40-storey-tall industrial wind turbines.
“Now I’m paying under 7 cents per kilowatt-hour and government’s paying the wind-generation companies 13-plus cents. What will my electricity cost me?” you ask.
Our government is fuzzy-headed about additional numbers concerning wind-generated electricity. On June 25 they published another document. I recommend you read it at online.
The Quick Facts section 2 states: “Since 2003, about 1,300 megawatts of renewable electricity has come online in Ontario, enough to power 300,000 homes—or a city the size of Windsor.”
I was impressed until I got the facts. The government’s number of megawatts produced is based on 100-percent output as stated on a turbine’s capacity nameplate. However, when the wind blows too strongly or not enough, or maintenance is being done to turbines, no power is produced. Down time is 70 percent to 75 percent, according to a British efficiency study.
Think of it like this: suppose your car engine has a manufacturer’s rating of 125 horsepower. Is it putting that out when the pedal is to the metal, passing a transport on a two-lane highway, cruising at 80 kilometres per hour, or parked in your garage? Although its potential is always 125 horsepower, seldom is that achieved.
Wind turbines seldom reach their potential nameplate capacity.
We can’t afford what our government has planned for us with wind-generated electricity.
We will all be hurt by this; some will lose good health, some will lose places they use for leisure, others will lose their homes, and everyone will lose financially.
Our kids and grandkids are depending on us. Phone or email your MPP and tell the Ontario government, “Fix this poorly thought-out program before it’s too late.”
John Robson
Belwood
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2010/08/20/turbine-output-numbers-are-false-predictions/