Here's an excerpt of an informative piece on wind power by Tony Lodge, a British energy and political analyst.
The wind industry has traditionally claimed that turbines have an average capacity of around 30 per cent, but the research shows this is much closer to 20 per cent. In comparison, a coal or nuclear plant will enjoy capacity of almost 100 per cent.In a nutshell, any prudent analysis of wind power performance data versus environmentalists' and agenda-driven scientists' promises will find a disconnect.
Even more disturbing, National Grid data shows that between November 2008 and December 2010 turbines operated below 20 per cent of their capacity more than half of the time and below 10 per cent for more than a third of the time.
Add to this the news that several energy companies were paid almost £1m between April 5 and 6 to switch off wind turbines because the National Grid did not need the energy they were generating as this input did not meet their demand requirements at that time.
This problem will only increase as more turbines are built. Their weather-dependent nature means that their energy is unpredictable and unscheduled – note how turbines in Yorkshire hardly moved during the prolonged freeze when electricity demand was at its greatest. Critics point out that storing renewable energy is an option but will further add to the overall cost.
These payments were made to “halt” the turbines for several hours; it cost up to 20 times the value of the electricity that would have been generated if the turbines had been kept running and the electricity taken. In short, the Government is now authorising subsidies for wasted energy.
Advocates of wind energy appear to rely more on exaggerated hopes than honest estimations. I'm inclined to call the national wind energy scheme a fraud perpetrated on the public.
Currently, wind energy is unreliable and expensive. Any honest prediction of the future would glean that wind energy will continue to be unreliable and grow in cost.
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