"In order to guarantee reliable electricity supplies when wind farms produce little or no power,e.g. during periods of calm or storm-related shutdowns, traditional power station capacities must be available as a reserve. This means that wind farms can only replace traditional power station capacities to a limited degree."

I applaud the resolution of recent correspondents (to the Manchester Journal) to carry on a civil discussion of the merits and disadvantages of wind power, without appeals to emotion. In that spirit, I would like to offer a summary of recent German experience with wind power, as stated in the 2005 annual report of E.ON Netz, one of Germany's largest electric grid operators. E.ON Netz serves a population of 20 million people living in 40% of the Germany's land area. It runs 32,500 kilometers of high voltage power lines, and is responsible for integrating 7,000 megawatts of wind power, nearly half of that... [continue via Web link]

Web link: http://www.windwatch.org/documents/461