Bernie Sanders waxed eloquently about "thousands of jobs" that would be created by extending the PTC, and how much "Americans want wind energy."
I fired off this message to Sens. Schumer and Clinton:
Sen. Bernie Sanders' remarks on the floor today in support of extending the Production Tax Credit for wind energy developers is misguided and wrong, and you should opposed extending the PTC.
Wind energy developed has expanded dramatically in upstate NY in the last two years and contrary to Sen. Sanders, the people do not want it. Perhaps it is appropriate in developing countries or in other regions of the US, marked by sparse population, but upstate clusters of over 50 400-foot-high turbines are being sited without regard to adverse impacts on residential homeowners. Moreover, a study for NYSERDA completed by GE Energy quantifies the “effective capacity” of land-based wind power plants, concluding as follows: "Capacity factors of inland wind sites in New York are on the order of 30% of their rated capacity. Their effective capacities, however, are about 10%, due to both the seasonal and daily patterns of the wind generation being largely 'out of phase' with the NYISO load patterns."
In other words, wind power is minimally available in the summer, when electricity is needed most, and is most available in the winter, when it is needed least. In addition, wind power is most available in the evening, when the system load is diminishing. The industry's (AWEA) estimates of wind power's potential contribution to efforts to reduce reliance on fossil fuels are therefore inflated by a factor of 10! We should stop aggressive development of wind--the least effective renewable energy resource--until the effects of the current level of development can be properly assessed.
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