"Denmark, the world’s most wind-intensive nation, with more than 6,000 turbines generating 19% of its electricity, has yet to close a single fossil-fuel plant. It requires 50% more coal-generated electricity to cover wind power’s unpredictability, and pollution and carbon dioxide emissions have risen (by 36% in 2006 alone)."
Fact is, reliance on wind capacity builds in a structural requirement to burn more fossil fuels to make up for the time that the wind capacity is unavailable. The need for quick-start capacity when the wind generation goes down means natural gas, which simply gives the Russians, as the major supplier of NG, a greater stranglehold on the European economy.
The article that you referenced has some excellent commentary, most of which agrees with the author. I will use it to rebut the leftists on the Denver Post blogs.
Exactly.
Can’t idle one boiler due to wind or solar. Ask any power engineer what he thinks of the wind farms (might need to get him drunk first).
Sweden is big into wind generated electricity. Unfortunately it must be supplemented by gas. My friend in middle Sweden pays approximately 52 cents per kwh. That compares to our 8-12 cents per kwh. These prices include generation, transmission, taxes, etc in both countries.
Sorry, I misspoke about gas supplement. Here is verbatim the Swedish story.
When the wind is not so strong it it compensated by waterpower. We need power on sunny summerdays without wind so we use waterpower. On cold winterdays without wind it is the same but the water is gone. So Germany start their coal and oil power plant and rise the price. The result is: billions ov money to the companies and bankrupcy to the people.
Thanks for the link!
Here’s the future, but it’s now politically untenable due to Fukishima.