Wind power is not the answer...

The Financial Post has a nice comment by Terence Corcoran on wind power. You might be hearing a lot about wind power from the Conference on Climate Change in Montreal. Yet, it's not really the answer to our problems.

One of the big German power distributors, E.ON Netz GmbH, reports that while Germany's wind power capacity of 14,350 megawatts makes it a world leader, the operations generate massive downstream supply and transmission problems. By law, E.ON Netz pays about 9 cents a kilowatt hour to windmill operators. But then the system must deal with the fact that the wind generators, on average, operate only 15% of the time. Even more uncertain, is when they will operate.

To cope with uncertainty, the German system must enter the twilight zone of energy policy. To cover the unpredictability of wind power, the system needs extra capacity to offset the risk of shortages. "Operational experience over the past few years has shown that reserve capacities in the order of magnitude of 60% of the installed wind capacity must be kept for wind balancing in the years when wind levels are normal," said EON Netz in a report.

In other words, if you build 1,000 megawatts of wind capacity, you need an additional 600 megawatts of coal or gas capacity.