Benefits doubtful
The Ottawa Citizen, www.ottawacitizen.com 7 September 2010
I have yet to meet any professional who has worked in the power generation field who agrees with the present “green” policy, especially solar and wind power generation.
Wind power was only able to add 10 per cent of its capacity during the recent hot spells and must be backed up by generation capacity which is far less expensive and does not produce any greenhouse gasses about 75 per cent of the time. In fact, it is debatable if there are any environmental benefits with wind energy given the land requirements, note; wind power killed 7,000 birds vs. 1,600 in the heavy oil production. Solar is about 10 times as expensive as existing costs and will also need considerable backup by alternative generating capacity. It is also not without environmental problems.
It appears that this policy has no social benefits, it is environmentally debatable and is fiscally terrible. The public can expect higher rates for electricity as well as higher provincial taxes to pay for all the subsidies. Requests for independent audits have been ignored.
Greater environmental benefits would be realized by spending this money on such initiatives as public transportation or air conditioning using Lake Ontario.
George Byrtus,
Kanata
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2010/09/07/benefits-doubtful/