If it can be produced at competitive rates, why not?
Wind farms are coming to North Carolina, I’ve just discovered. Booked a week at a cool beach house at Carova Beach, which I’ve never been to despite being born here and living here practically my entire life. Northeastern NC gets a pretty reliable, stiff breeze and has a great deal of underutilized private land. At $8,000 a pop annual land lease, the farmers are actually thrilled and the company doing this will be the largest taxpayer in the county in one fell swoop. So, I have mixed emotions. I don’t like the looks of the things, am worried that it’s a boondoggle, but if it’s not subsidized and the landholders as well as the jurisdiction is benefiting and none of them are up in arms, I can’t say that I see the problem other than aesthetics.
Why not? Here’s why:
1. Energy density is very low. It takes 1,000 times more land than a conventional coal or gas fired plant.
2. It destroys raptors at an incredible rate.
3. The constant thrump-thrump-thrump of low frequencies damages humans. Many ranchers have had to leave the land that’s been in families for generations because of the noise.
4. The shadow of the blades through early morning and late evening sun drives humans nuts.
5. The visual blight upon the beautiful American landscape is awful. These are the most hideous machines ever built. They are destroying the magnificent vistas all across the west.
6. You cannot dispatch the power. It’s available and you have to take it whether you want it or not. Surplus wind power almost totally collapse the Texas grid a couple years ago.
7. If you produce 100 MW of wind power, you have to have 100 MW of fossil-generated power on hot standby for the time the wind stops blowing. Wind blows mostly during the day and not so much at night in most parts of the US. So you have to spend 2X on your capital plant than you otherwise would have.
8. Windmills are extremely wasteful of steel and concrete compared to conventional plants. Both steel and concrete take a HUGE amount of coal to produce.
9. They cannot succeed without federally mandated State Renewable Energy Plans. Without public subsidies, the wind industry would die by tomorrow morning.
Other than those few problems, wind is great.
Only because the electric companies are forced by law to buy wind generated power at market rates. The electric companies are also forced by law to permit access to the grid.
Given the choice electric companies would never buy wind generated electricity. It is erratic and unreliable (just like the wind).