Posted on 10/15/2013 11:32:48 AM PDT by jazusamo
According to a new study conducted by Texas Tech University Professor Dr. Michael Giberson for the Institute for Energy Research, the government and wind lobby aren't telling taxpayers the whole truth about how much wind energy really costs. The study comes as the wind lobby is set to receive another extension on massive subsidies with little results to show for it.
"As Big Wind's lobbyists fight tooth and nail to extend the wind Production Tax Credit, it is important that we look at the true costs of wind power to taxpayers and ratepayers," IER President Thomas Pyle said about the study. "Despite being propped up by government mandates and billion dollar subsidies for decades, wind power continues to be an expensive and boutique energy source that the American people cannot rely on for power when they need it. Although lobbyists for the wind industry prefer to downplay the real costs of wind power, Dr. Giberson has produced a fact-based study that demonstrates just how expensive it really is."
According to the study, wind energy costs taxpayers $12 billion per year and shows wind power costs $109 per megawatt hour, nearly double government estimates of just $72 per megawatt hour. The study also shows wind power doesn't decrease the cost of electricity as environmental groups and government advocates claim, but instead shifts costs onto taxpayers. In addition, wind energy subsidies allow those who start wind projects to easily game the system.
"Wind power projects often obtain additional production subsidies, and these subsidies allow the wind project owner to profit even when power prices go negative," the study states.
I have traveled in areas of TX, OK, KS, NE, IL, MA and perhaps several other states with wind power turbine installations. What surprised me was the amount of time and the percentage of the turbines that were inactive. I remember never seeing any spinning turbines when flying over IL. There is no viable storage method to store generated energy when wind is sufficient for operation, to provide for time periods when it is not. Truly a stupid, costly idea providing payback to the corrupt political power taking the taxpayers into un-survivable debt, along with many other subsidized debacles.
I know it was the article writer. Permit my rants on inaccurate usage of numbers. ;)
Okay, permitted. :-)
For some of us, knowing math is a blessing.
For many others, math is a curse.
Agreed...One of the first wind turbine installations I was familiar with was the Tehachapi Pass in So CA over thirty years ago. Though it was fairly new it was the same way then.
Yes, but our hydroelectric here in the NW is not deemed to be “green.”
It is time for TTU to study the effects of these unsightly propellors on the weather downstream of these monstrosities.
Energy is removed from the moving air mass and converted into electrical energy — work is being done just like in an expander/generator — downstream air should be cooler than upstream, etc. What effect does it have on ground level temperatures?
Man, you got that right.
The enviro-nazis would have every dam not only in the NW but the whole country blasted to smithereens if they had their way.
Those dams are a blight on the eco-system, ya know. :-)
No, the prices are what the utility pays the wind farm. The wind farm investor then seeks the $0.023/kWh PTC from the Feds against their quarterly tax liability to enhance the "after-tax" return of the project over an average 20 year period.
Much like the price of oil or other forms of energy don't include all the subsidies those industries receive - it's baked into what you pay but at the investor level.
Again, a tax "credit" is not the same as actual taxpayer money spent by Mordor. It's tax revenue forgone, which Mordor thinks was theirs to begin with anyway.
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