Hi Keith,
There were several factual errors in your article yesterday that we would like to bring to your attention.
1. You stated that the Community Energy windfarm "started churning out enough clean energy for about 6,500 homes." That is simply not true. It could only be true if the windfarm could operate continuously at nameplate capacity. In the real world of our northeast, wind turbines generate power less than 30% of the time since they need a steady wind of around 8 mph to begin to turn the blades. However they do not reach nameplate capacity until we have steady winds of 27 to 50mph. As such winds are decidedly rare here the actual output of a turbine is less than 15% of nameplate. Further compounding the problem is the fact that wind production is out of phase with electrical demand. I.e., our strongest steadiest winds are on winter nights when our electrical demands are the lowest. On hot humid summer days like today electrical demands are peaking (due to AC) but there is very little wind on such days and the windfarms are not producing a single Kw of power. Last year during the brownouts in CA their windfarms produced at less than 2% of capacity. Overall the amount of usable power produced by windfarms is probably less than 5% of capacity.
As a result of these issues, conventional power generators must be ready to immediately back up wind energy (with spinning reserve) when the wind dies, and therefore wind does not offset conventional production nor reduce emissions.
The intermittent and unpredictable production of wind turbines also wreaks havoc on the electrical grid.
Another factor that is often overlooked is that windfarms require electricity from the grid at all times to power control systems, heating and cooling, turbine operations, etc. However none of the developers will share just how much electricity is consumed so we really do not yet know if there is any net production at all. However since they do not get paid by actual net production, they really don't care.
2. You state that rising fossil fuel prices have helped to make wind more competitive. In fact our primary fossil fuel is domestic coal, and the price is quite steady. The American Wind Energy Association has perpetrated the myth that wind power will reduce our reliance on foreign oil (see attached for additional myths). It must be inconvenient for them to not know that we do not burn oil to generate electricity. We do rely on another fossil fuel, natural gas, to assist in meeting peak demands while reserving coal, hydro, and nuclear for base load. Although natural gas is more expensive than coal per Kw it is a logical choice because it can be despatched (turned on or off) very quickly. Coal and nuclear take a long time to bring on line; gas turbines can be up and running in minutes.
3. You state that Europe plans to more than triple the amount of energy from wind by 2020. That is news to us. The only country that continues to aggressively build wind is UK. According to your paper (WSJ, 2--06) Denmark, Germany, Spain, and Switzerland have or are reducing/eliminating subsidies for wind because they cannot afford to prop up a non-competitive technology.
We are part of a large informal network of concerned citizens from across the country. We have researched this topic exhaustively and concluded, somewhat reluctantly, that the entire wind energy industry is an Enronesque scam, kept alive with billions of your and my tax money in the forms of grants, subsidies, tax credits, etc.
To give you some insight into other illegal aspects of this giant fraud attached is a copy of an Antitrust Complaint filed with Department of Justice. In addition to the feds we have interest from the state AG as well as private law firms.
Should you be interested in doing a more in depth examination of wind energy we would be happy to put together a panel of experts for you to interview. We also have an extensive library of documents, reports, and independent studies that support our conclusions.
Feel free to bounce back or call with questions.
brad and linda
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