Five key reasons to pull plug on wind subsidies

Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT) published an article by Larry Bell which can be viewed at this link:

Five key reasons to pull plug on wind subsidies

The five reasons are listed below, and more details for each are in the article linked above:

1. First, consider that even gargantuan wind installations covering thousands of acres generate only small amounts of unreliable power.

2. Those intermittent outputs require access to a “shadow capacity” which enables utilities to balance power grids when wind conditions aren’t optimum . . . which is most of the time. Anti-fossil energy promoters aren’t eager to mention that those “spinning reserves” (which must equal the total wind capacity) are fueled by the same sort of coal or natural gas turbines that those friendly breezes were touted to replace.

3. A major study of nearly 3,000 on-shore British wind farms found that the turbines have a very short –12- to 15-year– operating life, not the 20- to 25-year lifespans applied in politicized government and industry projections.

4. Along with high life-cycle investment and operations costs, let’s also add environmental costs to the mix. A Sierra Club official described them as giant “Cuisinarts in the sky” for bird and bat slaughters. Other local wind critics have legitimate health concerns about land-based installations. Common symptoms include headaches, nausea, sleeplessness, and ringing in ears resulting from prolonged exposure to inaudibly low “infrasound” frequencies that even penetrate walls.

5. The existence of the entire wind power industry depends upon federal subsidies.