Wind Power's Problems Not PR

If you read the Toronto Star recently, you might think that wind power's only problem is unreasonable health concerns, and a minor case of NIMBY.I'm still undecided about the health effects of wind power, to be honest. I can't see any reason why they might cause health problems, but I'm not willing to dismiss the idea out of hand without any widespread implementation and observation. I'm pretty

Monthly Wind Report - June, 2010

Looking at electricity generation from windfarms in Ontario from last month reveals some interesting details. As always, the data that I am using is publicly available on the IESO website.Figure 1: Wind generation for Ontario in June, 2010 - Datapoints are hourly.As I've come to expect, sometimes the windfarms produce large amounts of electricity and sometimes they produce nearly nothing. The

Electricity Without Subsidies?

Increasingly, the question must be asked whether or not electricity generation can occur without direct or indirect government subsidies and loans. If the answer is no, then to what extent should the government be involved in the process and should it be allowed to 'play favourites' when it comes to supporting groups pursuing electricity generation.There needs to be a clear difference made

The Real Costs of Electricity Rates

If your electricity rates were to double, the effect it would have on your monthly bills wouldn't mean more than a few hundred dollars a year most likely. To be sure, that might crush those living beneath the poverty line and those living paycheque to paycheque, but for the middle and upper class, just a mild inconvenience. But rising electricity rates don't just affect your monthly electricity

Weekly Wind Report

So the last week was an interesting one as far as wind power was concerned. Like a roller coaster, the amount of electricity produced by the wind farms increased and decreased before increasing again and decreasing again.It didn't get as low as we've seen it before, but it didn't get as high either.Capacity factor: 27.80%Maximum Output: 808 MWMinimum Output: 27 MWBiggest change hour-to-hour:

Weekly Wind Report

First the good news for wind advocates, this week, wind power broke 40% capacity factor for the first time since I began tracking it.Bad news, wind power fluctuated wildly across the week, rising as high as 922 MW and sinking as low as 5 MW. If we were only using electricity when the wind blows this wouldn't be a problem, or if we had another way of 'smoothing' out wind power across a week. But

More Windmills Won't Solve This Problem

I've been thinking increasingly about the problem of intermittent power from wind mills. Partly because I've been visiting the Spanish electricity website where they indicate a relatively more stable supply of electricity from wind power. Which made me wonder if having more wind power somehow causes the output on average to be more stable. It probably would if you had multiple independent

Weekly Wind Report

So, I have one question for wind advocates. In Ontario, with a total installed 'theoretical' capacity of 1085 MW, for a one hour period, you couldn't scrap together more than 2 MW of output. That's pathetic.A nuclear reactor or a coal fired power plant may shut off for repairs but its generally predictable when it will occur and for how long. When they are operating, they can operate

Weekly Wind Power Report

So this week is probably exactly the nightmare that I keep referring to for wind power. The overall capacity factor was up slightly from last week but only because of a large peak that occurred between the second and third days.The power output went from almost nothing to over 900 MW in the period of a day and then dropped rapidly back down under 200 MW. Then it bounced back up and down for a

Weekly Wind Report

If there's one thing I don't mind, its facts. I've been open about my position on wind power and its usefulness (or lack thereof) in generating electricity for Ontario. So I don't mind looking and publicizing facts about wind power.So in that trend, I'll be posting data taken from the IESO public reports concerning wind generation in Ontario every weekend.For the week of February 16 - 23, there

McGuinty Ignores Facts, Pushes Ahead

This is a very good article concerning green power and their potential in Ontario. I would just like to highlight one very important quote.In a report two years ago, the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) told the government that "wind and solar power will never be more than a niche supplier of power in Ontario."People in the system know that wind and solar power is a dead end for Ontario. People in