WIND POWER

Further to my recent mention of Greenie dissension about windmills, a reader writes:

“The American Wind Energy Association has a site, (www.awea.org) with some interesting papers. One paper stated: "Installed wind energy generating capacity now totals 4,685MW and generated about 1.2 billion kWh of electricity - less than 1% of US electricity generation"

Calculation #1: US electricity generation in 2000 was 3.800 trillion kWh according to the US energy department. Dividing 1.2 by 3800 yields 0.3%. (Yea, this is less than 1%, a LOT less.)

Calculation #2: Theoretical output = 4685 MW x 24 x 365 = 41.05 billion kWh. Actual output was 11.2 billion kWh 11.2 / 41.05 yields a paltry 27% efficiency. How do they make money? In some cases, the tax benefits per kWh are actually greater than the money they get for selling the power.

As a closure, I find it so Kennedyesque that Ted has suddenly done an about face regarding wind power when it comes close to home in Martha's Vinyard. Ultimate NIMBYism.”

The really HUGE cost of wind-power generators, however, is that you have to double them up with other types of generator for use when the wind is not blowing. The whole thing is utter nonsense, in other words.

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