Is wind energy a waste?
By Bob Chirdon | Toledo News Now | June 19, 2013 | www.toledonewsnow.com
In the past 10 years or so, more has been written and said about alternative energy options than any normal person could possibly comprehend.
Until the surge in fracking and natural gas production, the search for dependable, manageable and affordable energy alternatives focused mostly on solar and wind. Well I just read an interesting column on wind energy and the conclusion is that wind power is none of the above.
Compared to conventional power plants, wind farms take up enormous amounts of noisy space. Wind turbines produce energy only 30% of the time, and that production time is hard to predict. Wind power is difficult to manage since it is prone to surges and down time, which must be balanced to serve consumer demand and coordinated within existing energy grids – not an easy task.
Finally, in the past few decades, almost $24 billion in federal subsidies have been granted to keep the wind energy dream spinning, yet not a single conventional power plant has been taken off line during this time.
Dependable, manageable and affordable energy. Arguably, consumers get that now from conventional plants. Add to this what is going on in natural gas production and it just might be time to wind down those wind turbine farms for good.
If there are any wind turbine supporters out there, give me a call. We will give you equal time to tell us why the winds that blow in this editorial are coming from the wrong direction.
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URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2013/06/20/is-wind-energy-a-waste/