There is None So Blind . . .

Turning Screws Inside Wind Turbines

We have made the point before--but because it would seem there are heaps of slow learners--we need to make it again.  Wind power is a crock.  As many have observed, wind power is a very expensive and inefficient way to generate electricity.  Regardless of this basic reality, wind power has achieved rock star status as a clean energy.  

The reality is that wind power is inefficient, costly, and erratic.  Any wind power business case relies upon huge subsidies to make it "profitable".  In other words, it can only continue if Peter is thoroughly robbed in order to pay Paul.

The brutal realities have finally been faced up to by a small wind power company in New Zealand.  It may well be the canary in the coal mine.

The new chairman of NZ Windfarms says the company has reached a turning point where it must evaluate its future because of the unpredictability of wind power.

Stuart Bauld spoke of the options as he also announced a $14m loss due to Vector selling its 22 per cent shareholding meaning Windfarms lost millions of dollars in tax benefits under continuity of shareholding accounting rules. [Stuff.  Emphasis, ours.]

In order to make a profit Windpower needs (as is universally the case, it seems) artificial subsidies of one sort or another.  In this case it was tax credits.
  But, secondly Mr Bauld discovered that wind power is unpredictable.  This must have come as a great shock.

"Wind flow is unpredictable. When the company first started operations, it assumed that it could achieve 160 gigawatts of production per year.  This was later changed to 140 GWH and then to 130 GWH. Whilst we have occasionally operated at an annual rate close to this, it has never been achieved over a full year, so this year we again reduced it to 120 GWH, production we did not achieve this in 2018.

"The reality is that it is only by putting our plant at risk that we can achieve these higher numbers."

Wind power is unpredictable! Amazing.  Who would have thought.  But this unpredictability has a double edge to its sword.  One cut is the fickleness of wind, which at times is the gentle zephyr with which wind turbines hardly move, if at all.  But a second cut is the rough embrace of a howling gale which risks tearing turbines to bits.  End result?  Wind power is uneconomic and terribly inefficient.

Who would have thought?