The Dilemma Surrounding Wind Farms

Nor can we shout about the "beauty" of wind "farms" without actually countering the charge that wind power "makes little significant difference to carbon emissions" (as Suzuki neglects to do).

I love windmills and I think we should use them more. On a trip to the Netherlands a few years ago, I took more than a few pictures of windmills (the modern ones) all over the country side. A lot of farms down there host windmills and I do not find the country view becomes ugly because of them.

I live in Quebec where we use mostly hydro-electricity. As windmill prices go down and they are more efficient than before, I want our government to put more and more money on windmills. I believe windmills should be a part of our future. I also want them to promote tankless water heaters - standard tank heaters waste far too much energy for nothing.

Comment regarding Rucio's remarks:
Where are your statistics to back out your claims. Sure, eliminating all the SUVs, V8 engines and sport cars from the world will have a bigger impact on the carbon emissions, but I don't think is going to happen soon. Every move counts when we are talking about protecting the environment. If not, why do households even bother to recycle?

Statements from German, Danish, and Irish utilities have said that wind power makes little difference to carbon emissions and that the money could be much better spent. They speak from experience. It is obviously the burden of those who support this "green" industrial assault on the environment to show an actual benefit when challenged. Yet Vallee and Suzuki's only argument is how much they love them.

Support for your statement Rucio that German, Danish and Irish utilities need to be backed up. Where did you get the info? Can you point me to a website or resource?

I said nothing about back-up, only that "wind power makes little difference to carbon emissions," the statement that Suzuki ignored. As reported by David White in The Utilities Journal ("Danish Wind: Too Good To Be True?," July 2004), the west Danish grid operator Eltra had to dump 84% of its wind-produced electricity. It's not so much a question of back-up, because the wind power is pretty much irrelevant.



Eon Netz is the grid operator for a third of Germany, and their "Wind Report 2004" discusses the problems of having significant amount of wind plant. The recently released German Energy Agency study (reported in The Guardian) concluded that the goal of CO2 reduction could be much more cheaply and effectively achieved than with large-scale wind.



That was also the conclusion of a study by the Irish grid: "The cost of CO2 abatement arising from using large levels of wind energy penetration appears high relative to other alternatives." It also shows that any impact of wind on other power sources quickly plateaus after about 5% penetration.



From Denmark, Flemming Nissen, head of development at the utility Elsam, gave a presentation at a meeting in Copenhagen, May 27, 2004: "Increased development of wind turbines does not reduce Danish CO2 emissions."



That is why we hear only about the future of industrial wind power, because despite the long experience of other countries there is no benefit to be reported.

Should have said supported with rteferences to your comments. Didn't realize the pun. Anyways, thanks for the links to support your comments. They have been helpful in forming my opinion.

My apologies for not considering it was my statement that needed back-up.

Hey Kim ~
If you love wind mills so much, why don't you marry one.
Wind mills will never be able to generate enough power to replace oil, and thats the truth!

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