Breaking Wind

From Watts Up With That?:

The wind power industry is predicting massive layoffs and stalled or abandoned projects after a deal to renew a tax credit failed Thursday in Washington.

Unlike so many I do like seeing wind turbines on the landscape. I see them as giant mobile sculptures. But they were not sold to us as sculpture. They were sold as a resource. And while a subsidy for sculpture may be justified the turbines were not sold as art projects but as energy generators.

Compare the subsidies for coal (under 50 cents per MWh) to those for wind ($24 per MWh). That difference will wind up on your utility bill (or taxes). And it will not shut down one single coal, natural gas, or nuclear generator. They will have to be kept in the system at increased costs (lower use rates) to be ready for when the wind doesn’t blow (which can happen in an instant so the plants need to be on hot standby).

For now (until the lobbyists start lobbying more vigorously) wind is dead. We shall see if it holds.