This document compiled for Ontario electricity consumers provides an comprehensive explanation of the hidden-costs of industrial wind energy. It also directly addresses the question of whether wind power provides a meaningful reduction in carbon emissions.

North American Electric Reliability Corporation released this assessment of the reliability and adequacy of the bulk power system in North America for the next ten years.

On Jun 12, MA DOER granted Hydro Quebec approval for 108MW of wind to be eligible for the MA Rec market. There is an additional 212MW of wind that is already operating and may soon follow. DOER's decision is attached. A number of folks familiar with the New England REC market believe this decision, to be followed by others, will seriously depress REC values.

Bowark Energy, LTD of Alberta Canada entered into agreements with landowners "in an around Letellier, St. Joseph and the rural municipalities of Montcalm and Rhineland to secure exclusive right-of way and easement across, over, under, through and above the Lands for purposes of constructing, operating and maintaining electrical power generating wind turbines, electrical powerlines and related facilities and for any other Project related purposes".

Rube Goldberg would admire the utter purity of the pretensions of wind technology in pursuit of a safer modern world, claiming to be saving the environment while wreaking havoc upon it. But even he might be astonished by the spin of wind industry spokesmen. Consider the comments made by the American Wind Industry Association.s Christina Real de Azua in the wake of the virtual nonperformance of California.s more than 13,000 wind turbines in mitigating the electricity crisis precipitated by last July.s .heat storm.. .You really don.t count on wind energy as capacity,. she said. .It is different from other technologies because it can.t be dispatched.. (84) The press reported her comments solemnly without question, without even a risible chortle. Because they perceive time to be running out on fossil fuels, and the lure of non-polluting wind power is so seductive, otherwise sensible people are promoting it at any cost, without investigating potential negative consequences-- and with no apparent knowledge of even recent environmental history or grid operations.

Eventually, the pedal of wishful thinking and political demagoguery will meet the renitent metal of reality in the form of the Second Law of Thermodynamics (85) and public resistance, as it has in Denmark and Germany. Ironically, support for industrial wind energy because of a desire for reductions in fossil-fueled power and their polluting emissions leads ineluctably to nuclear power, particularly under pressure of relentlessly increasing demand for reliable electricity. Environmentalists who demand dependable power generation at minimum environmental risk should take care about what they wish for, more aware that, with Rube Goldberg machines, the desired outcome is unlikely to be achieved. Subsidies given to industrial wind technology divert resources that could otherwise support effective measures, while uninformed rhetoric on its behalf distracts from the discourse.and political action-- necessary for achieving more enlightened policy.

The purpose of this study is to review the performance of wind power in Ontario, with particular attention to the period since the beginning of wind farm operations greater than 20 MW in the spring of 2006. This study comments on the GE Wind Power Integration Study released October 24, 2006 and hereafter referred to as the GE Study. Energy Probe’s study also provides recommendations arising from the observations of the performance results.

In times of low wind, or during maintenance, a wind turbine will consume a small amount of power to run computers, communications, hydraulics, yaw motors, heaters and radiator fans. When a turbine is generating, its power curve (or rated output) is net of power consumption, so it does not draw power from the grid at that time. Commercial scale wind turbines produce power 70-80% of the time, with output ranging from a small amount to the full rated capacity of the turbine. A typical wind turbine will produce 100 times more power than it consumes in a given month. Its consumption and peak load are very small. A 1.8 MW turbine may have peak load of 27kW, with a resting consumption of as low as 5 kW. Wind turbines are principally suppliers of power to the system, and any consumption is purely incidental. As such, wind turbines are not typical demand customers and should not be treated as other loads.

North American wind power is expected to see a more than fourfold increase in wind power plants in operation by 2010. The US is expected to grow from just over 6,700 MW to over 28,000 MW by 2010. Starting from a lower base of nearly 450 MW in 2004, Canada's wind power base will grow even more quickly to over 6,200 MW by 2010.

Editor's Note: This article highlights an optimistic view of wind energy growth largely driven by current and anticipated tax subsidies (e.g. production tax credits) and the creation of artificial markets (e.g. renewable portfolio standards). Both are the result of political polices that promote an energy source that is neither responsive to base load energy needs nor effective in reducing greenhouse gases.