December 7, 2010
Letters, West Virginia

Industrial wind too expensive, too inefficient

Mineral Daily News-Tribune, www.newstribune.info 6 December 2010

Professor Gates is correct. (The News-Tribune, December 1, 2010). Industrial wind is too inefficient and too taxpayer expensive to be worth it and it is time for the public to take another look.
A recent White House memo released by the Wall Street Journal revealed how much the public is paying for wind turbine installations, a whopping 65%. With 5 year double depreciation and other perks, the industry has only 11% of “skin in the game”, according to the Office of Management and Budget and the Treasury, cited in the President’s briefing. The people put up the majority of the money but have no equity, as the briefing paper states.
As Professor Gates points out, lacking base load capacity, wind depends on immediately available back up energy when the wind fluctuates. This takes wind out of play in reducing green house gasses since in West Virginia that backup is predominantly coal fired plants that produce more emissions when continuously ramped up and down to accommodate the volatility of wind generated electricity. Over the course of a year, because of the winds volatility, the turbines only produce approximately 30% of their rated capacity.
Add to this the cumulative loss of forest cover on highland ridge tops, ever increasing mortality to songbirds, raptors and bats and loss of the visual character of our mountains. Industrial wind makes no sense. It functions as a tax avoidance scheme for big companies.
If you or your organization would like to know more, call 304-567-2602, and we will put you in touch with one of our speakers.
Larry Thomas
President,
Allegheny Highlands Alliance
Circleville, WV

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2010/12/07/industrial-wind-too-expensive-too-inefficient/