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Wind Power News: Blogs
These news and opinion items are gathered by National Wind Watch in its noncommercial educational effort to help keep readers informed about developments related to industrial wind energy. They do not necessarily reflect the opinions of National Wind Watch. They are the products of and owned by the organizations or individuals noted and are shared here according to “fair use” and “fair dealing” provisions of copyright law.
Battery storage can’t fix wind & solar’s intermittency problem
Claims that mega-batteries will fix wind and solar’s natural intermittency problem turn out to be mega-myths. First, lithium-ion batteries of the kind pitched by Tesla – like every kind of battery – do not generate a single watt of power and are net consumers of electricity during their charge/discharge phase. Second, they are insanely expensive – relative to the trivial amounts of power they are capable of storing and releasing. Third, they are not designed to operate at grid-scale; at . . . Complete story »
Grid operators are sounding alarms about the increasing instability of US power grids
The near failure of the Texas power grid, coming just 4 minutes and 37 seconds from a complete collapse on February 14, 2021, was the first alarm bell that something was dreadfully wrong with US power grids. Meredith Angwin, a physical chemist and power grid specialist, described the February 2021 failure of the Texas power grid failure as a seminal event that was not a surprise: “Those of us who were watching the grid had noticed for years that Texas . . . Complete story »
Industrial wind turbines are the proverbial yo-yo
Over the past few days those of us living in southeastern Ontario couldn’t help but notice the ups and downs of the wind with both windy ones followed by almost a mid-summer doldrum! As a result of that experience it was worth a look at some IESO data and that is displayed below in a screenshot of April 4th to 9th taken on April 9th. The green on the chart shows the IWT (industrial wind turbines) grid connected generation over . . . Complete story »
Falmouth Town Meeting rejects Article 15
The citizen’s article asked Town Meeting to support soil testing on town land for possible cable landing sites associated with the cable landing necessary for the SouthCoast offshore wind energy project south of Martha’s Vineyard. Town Meeting members signaled their opposition to playing host to a major offshore wind farm development that could lead to unforeseen and unwanted consequences. The developer of the proposed offshore wind farm, according to Select Board Chair Nancy Taylor and Select Board member Doug Brown, . . . Complete story »
Thousands of gannets will perish as North Sea ‘wind parks’ expand
The Netherlands government plans to industrialise the North Sea by building thousands of wind turbines, as it attempts to meet goals proposed under the Climate Agreement. When Dutch citizens objected to renewable energy projects in their countryside, the government turned its attention to offshore development. But at what cost to the environment? 5000 giant turbines killing 8000+ birds each year… Plans for 5000 giant turbines in the North Sea have caused alarm in some environmental circles, even though the Dutch . . . Complete story »
What I learned at REV
Much of the conversation focused on loosening the noise rules, with the participants citing them as the biggest issue to wind development in Vermont. Complete story »
The ad Facebook doesn’t want you to see
Simple ad pointed to a website post on the need for change in wind power approvals Ten days ago, Wind Concerns Ontario filed a formal comment with the Independent Electricity System Operator or IESO in Ontario, asking that changes be made to the wind power contract approval process. Although the Green Energy Act has been revoked, and municipalities now has land-use planning powers returned, the fact is, nothing else about project approvals have changed. We thought people might like to . . . Complete story »
Final farewell to a wind energy debacle
According to the June 6 Cape Cod Times (see timeline for article) a contract award has been given to Atlantic Coast Dismantling LLC to demolish Falmouth’s two municipal wind turbines. It’ll come with a reported cost of nearly $40K with additional funds to be determined for electrical work and site restoration. The other notable town taxpayer cost cited in the article, a minimum payment of $975,000 to resolve the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Grant used to purchase and construct . . . Complete story »
Alarming 99% decline in gulls raises questions over expanding wind farms
* Shocking 99% decline in Lesser Black-backed gulls at Suffolk coastal site * The amber-listed gull is especially vulnerable to collision with offshore wind turbines * Plans to further expand industrial wind projects in the area could prove disastrous for birds A shocking 99% decline in the population of Lesser Black-backed gulls raises serious questions over the impact of industrial wind farm development in the North Sea. Huge wind farms nearby … The alarming reduction in the numbers of breeding birds . . . Complete story »
Whitmer’s support of nuclear power shows how renewable energy has fallen short
Data from the Energy Information Agency show that Michigan is still depending much more on nuclear power than renewables. Complete story »
