If you can store energy from windmills, you can store energy from nuclear plants too.
I don’t have the time or energy to reply to all of you individually, I wish I did. However I’ll respond to a few common points.
1) I’m well aware that nuclear is used for base load, as it should be. There are many nuclear technologies that are too costly to implement because of the red tape. They would help the case for nuclear. But there are other issues as well.
2) My biggest concern is that people (especially here!) are so anti-green that we end up throwing the baby out with the bathwater. As one of you mentioned, there ARE good uses for wind and solar. Wind isn’t responsive in and of itself, but there are technologies (some that I’m working on) that will allow it to be. To be fair, any power source could be hooked up to what we’re working on. And in fact one of them is used to consume excess energy on the grid in Germany.
3) Somebody mentioned space-based solar power. I’m a big fan, but as with anything else, there are hurdles to overcome. Big ones.
4) One thing wind and solar have going for them, their economics are relatively fixed and they become viable once fossil fuel costs reach a certain level. We don’t know what the limit of petroleum supplies on Earth is, but there most certainly is one. And there’s no harm in preparing for it now.
4) My biggest concern with large wind farms is the health implications of the low frequency vibrations (~10 Hz). They’re below the audible range, and many times can’t even be felt, but they’re high amplitude and wreak havoc with the vestibular system. Audible noise and birds fall WAY down on my list. Way down.
As I said in my second point. If you’re so anti-green that you can’t see the forest for the trees when you’re looking at these technologies then we won’t get along. There are ALWAYS problems with new technologies, no matter the area. But problems can be solved, it usually takes time and money. I understand the second is a sticking point for lots of people. I can disclose that my work in the field is privately funded, we’re letting the market do it’s job.
My job isn’t to decide which technology to use, that’s for people much further up the food chain. My job is to make sure that those people get the information they need to make that decision. One project I’m working on in the field deals with the intermittancy of wind, along with its off-peak statistical nature.