Replies to Wind Power a Worry - Examiner Letter to the Editor

Re: Wind Power A Worry

Inefficient wind power just drives up costs

Marion Thompson is right to be worried about wind turbines going up outside her door. I don't know anything about health effects, but I do know that every kilowatt of electricity produced by every turbine erected in Ontario is driving up the cost of her electricity. They are doing it in three different ways.

First, owners of wind farms are paid almost twice as much for the electricity they generate as Ontario Power Generation is. This as a result of the McGuinty governments desire to induce wind turbine construction. Wind farm owners receive over 11 cents a kW hour compared to OPG's 6.5 cents. Second, wind is only available somewhere between a third and a quarter of the time. So the claim in the article that "Each of the proposed turbines...(is).. enough to power 500 to 700 homes" is patently false. You could say that those turbines PLUS back-up generating capacity could power those homes. The truth is the wind doesn't blow most of the time so, unless those home owners are happy to be in the dark 70% of the time, you need to double up. The third factor driving up costs is availability. When is there almost no wind? On hot summer days when air conditioners are crying out for electricity and the spot price is the highest. The wind is most often blowing at night, when actual demand for electricity is at it's lowest. So there is excess capacity in the system and the Power Authority is forced to pay twice the going rate for wind generated electricity, because they have to chose power from the wind farms first. That's the rules the provincial government has established.


No wonder there's a rush to build turbines. It has nothing to do with desireable, efficient, effective green electricity. It's all about gaming the system. And we are all going to see higher rates as a result. Now don't get me started on solar panels.

Paul Stevens
Hastings Ontario

Wind power a misguided Liberal science project

Wind power is not green, nor is it clean, and most definitely the opponents to industrial wind turbines have a valid point.

It is a fact that industrial wind turbines must be paired with some other power plant or energy storage device to add capacity to the grid.

Westinghouse nuclear engineer Dr. Ulrich Decher stated that industrial wind turbines "do not replace the need for any other generators. All the generators that are needed without industrial wind turbines are needed with industrial wind turbines."

Premier McGuinty and the Liberal government in Ontario have sold out rural Ontario in the name of so-called "green" energy.

It is time to put some real science to work for all of us. Forget about your ill-conceived attempts at a science project.

DEBBIE LYNCH

RR2, Norwood