From Bloomberg:
President Barack Obama’s push for wind and solar energy to wean the U.S. from foreign oil carries a hidden cost: overburdening the nation’s electrical grid and increasing the threat of blackouts… “As we add more and more wind power, the grid will get more stressed, and there’s going to be a point where the grid can’t handle any more,” [said Federal Energy Regulatory Commission chairman Jon Wellinghoff].
There’s nothing quite like central planning.
Wind is great when it blows. Solar is great when the sun shines. Those that promote wind and solar as replacements for real sources of electricity have not thought out the situation or are just plain stupid. It is just like going to electric cars. How will the increased demand be supplied? Until true alternate sources of energy are developed coal, oil and nuclear must be major players in the mix.
It may be helpful to compare the DOEs “wind resource map”
http://www.windpoweringamerica.gov/wind_maps.asp
with an actual current wind speed map
http://www.usairnet.com/weather/maps/current/wind-speed/
When the wind speed is less than optimal for power generation *anywhere* it is less than optimal over a VERY large area. It would be sheer folly to rely on wind power for anything at all.
This comes under the heading if “Duh” The amount of electricity from wind, if any, depends on wind speed. Sometimes there is no wind, like dawn and dusk which happen to be peak usage times. The grid is balanced against demand, turning generators on or off, increasing or decreasing output. Just how do the “wind energy is great” folks plan to do that? Keep 90% of the displaced power generation at idle to make up for wind shortages? Bouncing generator plants up and down to account for grid variability and wind changes? Only greenies and bureaucrats believe they can control the wind. Well, it should be easy since they can also control the climate.
Wind energy, great. Eats up thousands of acres of land. Won’t mean diddly squat if the same watermelon enviro-mentalists who are so aroused FOR wind power are also AGAINST transmission lines to deliver the power to where it’s needed. Central Planning must be what they are counting on.