Wind power is waste of money, resources

I get furious at the waste of our money and resources on the Steel Winds project. First Wind’s claim that it can generate enough power for 9,000 homes is total nonsense. Wind is intermittent, variable and out of phase with demand. To describe the nameplate capability as capacity is an outright lie. Industrial-scale wind turbines have no capacity value because they have no capacity to generate power on demand. Wind turbines can produce only intermittent power; they must be backed 100 percent by conventional sources. The term capacity in regard to electric power is defined as the ability to produce power on demand. Wind energy cannot promise to deliver.

Power is another loosely used term when discussing wind energy. Just because the turbine has the nameplate capability to produce 2.5 megawatts does not mean that over time it will. Wind energy is notorious worldwide for coming up well short of nameplate capability. Wind produces in the neighborhood of 25 percent of the time.

The tax breaks that First Wind is getting and the tax revenues to the county and towns are nothing more than a shell game with our money. We paid out a lot more to get this token tax returned. The power Steel Winds does generate is uncompetitive on the open market so the New York Power Authority buys it regardless of the cost to us. We pay higher electric rates and subsidize wind energy by the RPS charge on every electric bill. If the wind zealots are serious about stopping global climate change, then develop energy sources that do not waste our money, resources or time.

Thomas Marks
Executive Director

Great Lakes Wind Truth, Derby