The UK is waking up when it's too late, it is not too late here

As I drove across the causeway that connects my village with the larger town I could see far across the bay to the farmlands that are becoming windfarms. It looked as if they were marching straight into our town of Rockport. We are in an essential flyway for birds, we have whooping cranes and sandhill cranes which are large vulnerable birds. Please do not let them get any closer.

Wind power: Even worse than you thought
But your 'leccy bill will keep going up to buy more of it

A new analysis of wind energy supplied to the UK National Grid in recent years has shown that wind farms produce significantly less electricity than had been thought, and that they cause more problems for the Grid than had been believed.

The report (28-page PDF/944 KB) was commissioned by conservation charity the John Muir Trust and carried out by consulting engineer Stuart Young. It measured electricity actually metered as being delivered to the National Grid.

In general it tends to be assumed that a wind farm will generate an average of 30 per cent of its maximum capacity over time. However the new study shows that this is actually untrue, with the turbines measured by the Grid turning in performances which were significantly worse:

Average output from wind was 27.18% of metered capacity in 2009, 21.14% in 2010, and 24.08% between November 2008 and December 2010 inclusive.

Windpower Failure - Big Time!

From News Talk Radio 790 in Lubbock -

Over-dependence on Wind Power Causes Energy Emergency in Texas
By: Robert Snyder

As was discussed on the February 2nd edition of Pratt on Texas, the ERCOT (Electric Reliability Council of Texas) rolling blackouts across the state could have been prevented with better planning and policy.

Electrical engineer, Ross Aten, joined Robert Pratt to talk about how too many coal and natural gas power plants within ERCOT were taken offline for maintenance. Ross also explained that if you, ‘ran the numbers’, the only way ERCOT could have met peak winter demand usage is if wind energy across the state was producing at significant totals. However, because of the ice storm and lack of wind, windmills weren’t producing any energy.

That is scary to think about. ERCOT without any public proclamation or policy announcement, put all of its proverbial eggs into the ‘wind energy basket’. Or, think about it this way, because of bureaucratic policy and bad planning, millions of Texans had to deal with rolling blackouts during deathly cold conditions.

We heard some horrible stories on the show from people in Abilene that had electronics damaged, and destroyed, because of the electricity popping on and off during the rolling blackouts.

A quick aside, I know the term ‘rolling blackout’ has become accepted because it’s a temporary blackout that is supposed to ‘spread the pain’, but in reality a blackout is a blackout. It doesn’t matter how your home or business doesn’t have power. If you don’t have power, you can’t work and in many conditions, can’t live.

Luckilly (for today) [Feb 4th], the Lubbock Power & Light and Xcel Energy grids in the South Plains and Panhandle is not connected to ERCOT. I’d imagine that if those two companies systems were connected to ERCOT, the rolling blackouts would have encompassed an even larger portion of the state.

Funny we who suffered those"blackouts" didn't get this on our news.

How's that wind energy working out?

I found this at Wizbang.

"wind power is about as dependable as, well, the wind."
posted by Rick quoting Don Surber
From the Scotsman: "Scotland's wind farms are unable to cope with the freezing weather conditions - grinding to a halt at a time when electricity demand is at a peak, forcing the country to rely on power generated by French nuclear plants."

Well, how bad could it be?

From the Scotsman: "Shortly before 5:30pm on [Monday and Tuesday], wind power production fell to 62MW and 61 MW respectively - just 2.5 per cent of its total capacity. At the same time on both occasions, the UK's electricity usage rose to about 60,000MW - one of the highest ever levels of demand. Electricity demand in the UK rarely rises above 60,000MW."

So let me get this straight, at a time when you need it most, wind power is about as dependable as, well, the wind.

Mr Surber isn't the only one questioning the feasibility of wind power:

After 30 months, countless TV appearances, and $80 million spent on an extravagant PR campaign, T. Boone Pickens has finally admitted the obvious: The wind energy business isn't a very good one.


The Dallas-based entrepreneur, who has relentlessly promoted his "Pickens Plan" since July 4, 2008, announced earlier this month that he's abandoning the wind business to focus on natural gas.

Two years ago, natural gas prices were spiking and Mr. Pickens figured they'd stay high. He placed a $2 billion order for wind turbines with General Electric. Shortly afterward, he began selling the Pickens Plan. The United States, he claimed, is "the Saudi Arabia of wind," and wind energy is an essential part of the cure for the curse of imported oil.

Voters and politicians embraced the folksy billionaire's plan. Last year, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he had joined "the Pickens church," and Al Gore said he wished that more business leaders would emulate Mr. Pickens and be willing to "throw themselves into the fight for the future of our country."
How could an industry go wrong with people like Al Gore and Harry Reid leading the charge?

There's a lesson here for people with sense.

The Real Cost of Wind Power

I had several links guiding me to the Boston Herald and this story but I like the commentary here at Gateway Pundit so it is the one I am using.

No Wonder Barack Obama & Libs Love Wind Power… It’s Twice As Expensive

by Jim Hoft

Why do liberal progressives hate poor people?

Why to liberal progressives hate the working class?

The Cape Wind power project in Massachusetts will cost twice as much as the current cost of electricity.

Who cares?… It’s not their money.

The Boston Herald reported:

The nation’s inaugural offshore wind farm, planned for waters off Cape Cod, has reached its first deal with a utility to purchase its power.

Under the agreement announced by both companies today, the utility National Grid would pay 20.7 cents per kilowatt hour starting in 2013 for half the power produces by the 130-turbine Cape Wind project planned for Nantucket Sound.

The price would go up by 3.5 percent annually to keep pace with inflation.

The deal is considered crucial to attract financing for a project estimated to cost at least $2 billion.

The deal must still be approved by state regulators.

Adjusted to today’s dollars, Cape Wind officials say the cost in the first year of the deal is 18.7 cents per kilowatt hour compared to the current cost of electricity of about 9 cents per kilowatt hour. The utility, which has 3.3 million customers in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and Rhode Island, said the deal will add about $1.59 to the average customer’s monthly electricity bill in 2013.

National Grid U.S. president Tom King said the country must invest in renewable energy, even when it’s more expensive.

But, at least the Chinese are happy.

80% of the Stimulus cash for wind power went to foreign countries last year.

Obama’s green energy plan where money is spent on projects where costs exceed benefits could kill as many as 900,000 net US jobs.

Links for a busy Wednesday

From Human Events:
All the President's Goldman Sachs Men
by Michelle Malkin
From Human Events
Democrats and Liberal Media Smear Tea Parties
by Lynn Woolley
Democrats haunted by corporate ties
From American Thinker
Leaving Liberalism
By Chuck Rogér
From CNSNews.com
Supreme Court Splits Sharply on Campus Christian Argument
By Jesse J. Holland, Associated Press
From American Spectator Blog
Big Implications for Wind Energy
By Paul Chesser
links via Lucianne.com

Wind Power equals Jobs Loss

UPDATED
I suspect you are not reading this in many places. The MSM is not interested in it. An Editorial from Investors business Daily:
The Big Wind-Power Cover-Up
Posted 03/12/2010

Scandal: Spain exposed the boondoggle of wind power in 2009, discrediting an idea touted by the Obama administration. In response, U.S. officials banded with trade lobbyists to hide the facts.

It was a cold day at the Energy Department when researchers at King Juan Carlos University in Spain released a study showing that every "green job" created by the wind industry killed off 4.27 other jobs elsewhere in the Spanish economy.

Research director Gabriel Calzada Alvarez didn't object to wind power itself, but found that when a government artificially props up this industry with subsidies, higher electrical costs (31%), tax hikes (5%) and government debt follow. Fact is, these subsidies have the same "Cuisinart" effect on jobs as wind-generating propeller blades have on birds. Every green job costs $800,000 to create and 90% of them are temporary, he found.

Alvarez made no bones about the lessons of Spain for the Obama administration, which has big plans for "green jobs." His report warned of "considerable employment consequences" from "self-inflicted economic wounds." It forecast that the U.S. could lose 6.6 million jobs if it followed Spain, and it "should certainly expect its results to follow such a tendency.

A few months later, Danish researchers at the Center for Politiske Studier came to the same conclusion about subsidized wind power from their own country's experience.

"It is fair to assess that no wind energy to speak of would exist if it had to compete on market terms," their report said.

Why or why do we not use what we have? We have nuclear,oil, gas, and coal.  We have many years of these products. We have engineered safe, clean ways to produce all the energy we need. Yet, we keep looking for something to appear that does NOT use these means.  Sure solar power and wind power are nice.  They are not the answer. All of the above can and should be used. Let's do some rational thinking on this.
This is a three page editorial, read it all.

UPDATE

From the Houston Chronicle:

The natural gas story

The nation has been given a gift by our energy sector. Let’s unwrap it carefully

HOUSTON CHRONCLE

March 13, 2010, 6:40PM

If there's a headline from the recent CERAWeek conference here that deserves to be flashed in neon to President Barack Obama and the rest of the nation, it is this one: “Domestic natural gas is clean, cheap and plentiful — look here for answers, Mr. President, as you seek energy security.”

Indeed. Natural gas appears to be all those things — and maybe much more. A report by IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates, released here last week, confirms that North American gas potential has tripled in just the past three years.

Thanks largely to the opening of large shale gas areas across North America, there are more than 100 years of supplies at current consumption rates. Daniel Yergin , the respected author and energy analyst and father of CERAWeek, calls this the most significant energy innovation of the 21st century. But it will reach full potential only if policymakers in Washington are paying attention.

Are they listening? Not closely enough, we would judge. That is the real heavy lifting ahead for natural gas advocates: getting the message about this plentiful, clean-burning resource to the highest levels of the Obama administration. It is not there yet.

This isn't all they have to say, read it all.

Somehow We Missed This from the MSM

A Google search shows who did cover it.  One of the links is to this article in Pajamas Media.

Anti-Lobbyist’ Obama Administration Recruited Left-Wing Lobbyists to Sell Bogus ‘Green Jobs’

by Christopher Horner

After two studies refuted President Barack Obama’s assertions regarding the success of Spain’s and Denmark’s wind energy programs, a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request reveals the Department of Energy turned to George Soros and to wind industry lobbyists to attack the studies.

Via the FOIA request, the Competitive Enterprise Institute has learned that the Department of Energy — specifically the office headed by Al Gore’s company’s former CEO, Cathy Zoi — turned to George Soros’ Center for American Progress and other wind industry lobbyists to help push Obama’s wind energy proposals.

Read the whole article for the complete story. Just more of the same from this administration, certainly not any transparency here or in anything else they do. If they don't like the truth they hide it, lie about it and stick their heads in the sand so they don't see it. Disgusting.  We cannot believe anything about this gang.