If they can figure out the storage issue then it becomes a lot more viable in certain circumstances. The subsidy is a joke though
Maybe developments in battery technology will allow the wind energy to get off the government tit? They are slowly beginning to advance battery tech, such as this article:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-10/ru-ss101310.php
I remember reading in Science magazine about a molten salt battery that is much more efficient, but can’t find a link to it anymore. I think development work was going on in Europe.
In some places other energy storage schemes may make more
sense than batteries, like storing compressed air underground, flywheels, etc.
It is not a storage problem so much as it is a transportation problem. After they build them they need to connect them to the regular electric grid. Most of the time that is expensive. Ask T. Boone Pickens who owns the largest wind farm in the country. I wouldn’t be surprised if his don’t go silent if he can’t get someone else to lay the lines for him.