Plug pulled on wind farm

"You can't count on the wind blowing at the time you need the energy"

A couple of reasons I found thisto be an interesting article on cancellation of a wind project in Manitoba:

1. a very important term, "capacity value" appears in a major daily
2. an influential politician doesn't care to understand the arguments against his vision being made by energy professionals

Plug pulled on wind farm - Winnipeg Free Press

"There's no prospective view of any future wind farms to be built in the province," said Ed Pakulak, the Canadian spokesman for U.S.-based Competitive Power Ventures (CPV). "The focus is hydroelectric power."
...
Hydro said it examined the performance of the St. Leon and St. Joseph wind farms during the peak-load hour of each month from June 2007 to May 2013. It found the minimum wind generation during the peak-load hour each month was zero or near zero.
"Manitoba Hydro has determined that the capacity value of wind generation within Manitoba to meeting the winter peak load is zero," Hydro said in a report to the PUB.
...
News of CPV's decision came a day before former NDP energy minister Tim Sale appears at the PUB to promote more wind generation and tougher energy conservation instead of the expense and risk of two new dams.
..."In Manitoba's current electric power situation, do the two alternatives -- dams or a combination of wind, geothermal and aggressive (domestic conservation) both provide the power we need for the next decade? The answer is clearly...

The answer is clearly Sale doesn't understand the term "alternative"

Wind is not an alternative to any other generation capacity where it has no capacity value - and "conservation" is a term poorly applied to electricity and should go the way of the dodo bird ("efficiency" mercifully replacing it).


Hat tip to Tom Adams on referencing the article

Related original content blog: Coal is Not Being Replaced By Wind - August 2011