Opinions
Wind power in the Windy City: Not there when needed
Wind almost never blows when the weather is hottest and the demand for electricity is highest.
That stark truth hasn't stopped state and federal policymakers from using consumer and taxpayer dollars to fund aggressive state renewable portfolio standards and generous federal subsidies to add expensive wind power to the nation's electricity grid.
July 25, 2012
by Jonathan Lesser, PhD
in Energy Tribune
Summertime is in full swing with its barbeques, vacations, and record breaking heat waves. If you can't keep cool in the lake or neighborhood pool, you are probably staying indoors with air conditioning - which was running non-stop in the Chicagoland area during the record heat the first week of July. That's not unusual, of course. Because we like to be comfortable, throughout the U.S. electric demand generally peaks in July and August. To meet that high demand, we must have plenty of generating capacity available, which means our nuclear, coal and natural gas-fired plants have been running at full... [continue via Web link]
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