Last Friday’s editorial, “The Big Picture Of Wind Power,” ended in lines: “But it will be important to keep an eye on the big picture. The benefits will outweigh the negatives, probably by a very large margin.”
Part of the big picture must incorporate this week’s wind energy lesson from Texas. Approximately 25 percent of that state’s electricity is generated from wind. On Monday CNN reported that frozen wind turbines have hampered the ability to generate enough power, thus contributing to grid blackouts that authorities are expecting to extend to the middle and possibly the end of the week.
This is a lesson requiring state legislators, as well as perhaps the editor and Falmouth residents, to reevaluate as a throwing of caution to the wind. The state energy reliance on offshore wind, in a big picture sense, beyond manhole covers and substations, could very well translate into massive grid blackouts for Massachusetts similar to those imposed by Mother Nature on Texas.
Could the benefits outweigh the negatives? Perhaps. But you probably won’t think so when you’re sitting in the dark for days pondering the warning from Don Quixote—“not to venture all (or, in this case, too many) eggs in one basket.”
Mark Cool
Firetower Road
Falmouth
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2021/02/19/a-lesson-in-texas/