SCE Wind Energy Production Records

To my knowledge, these are the first actual wind energy production records ever to be made available to the public. I acquired them by contacting Southern California Edison's Renewable Energy Division.

The wind energy industry claims that they can provide power for thousands of homes with each new windmill development, but in fact, wind turbines can only generate kilowatts randomly and can't actually service even one home. By nature intermittent, wind is unreliable as a power source. At best, windmills intermittently generate 14% to 20% of their rated capacity. The small amount of power they do generate does not match the time of need profile. In fact, only 6% of this generation is at peak need time, 33% mid peak and 61% off peak (at night).

To put this in context, the 4,000+ windmills in the San Gorgonio Pass (approx. 565 megawatts of installed capacity) generate only approx. 100 megawatts per year. Edison uses approx. 13,000 MW of power in their service area per year. There is approx. 2,500 MW of installed capacity wind energy in the State of California which generates approx. 600 MW of power. California uses approx. 67,500+ MW of power annually.

The visual blight, myriad environmental impacts, adverse health effects, noise, and property devaluation from industrial wind energy development is a harrowing tradeoff for a minuscule amount of intermittent power.

Because wind is unpredictable, the utilities will always have to have the same amount of power from conventional sources ready to take over when the wind stops. Wind is a duplication of power that the utilities already have to have, otherwise there would be blackouts. As rate and tax payers, we are paying more than double for this duplication of energy. Wind energy is the most highly subsidized energy source in the US at $23-30 per MW.

Wind energy will not save oil and fossil fuels (an untrue claim frequently made by windmill developers) or preclude the need to build additional power plants. When there is a surge in wind power, the utilities back up wind with hydro, geothermal or gas turbines, because they are the easiest to manipulate to accommodate the vagaries of wind. California does not use oil for electricity generation.

In order for an energy source to be viable it must be able to perform on demand, which wind cannot do, and because of it's unstable nature, it's useless as capacity.

Perhaps knowing the amount of power windmills actually generate, from the very source that buys their power, will lead to an understanding of why this is happening. It's not about the negligible amount of power that they generate, it's about the huge tax credits and ratepayer subsidies given to wind energy developers (and SCE and other utilities who buy their power) and the wealth that has enabled them to buy great political influence.

Windmills haven't proliferated in the San Gorgonio Pass because of the minuscule amount of power they generate, but because of the tremendous wealth of local windmill developers from wind energy tax credits and ratepayer subsidies that have afforded them the luxury of contributing large amounts of money to Riverside County and Palm Springs elected officials who, for 25 years, have generously returned the favor by approving every one of their massive, land intensive projects, regardless of the consequences.

Alexandra Weit
Whitewater, CA
bobweit@msn.com

SCE__Wind_Energy_Production_Records.pdf