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Are you for or against wind turbines?
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Are you for or against wind turbines?
Heck of a loaded question...I was in Europe and know they work great as an alternative power source, provide up to 30% power in some areas.
They will become more popular here eventually with the inevitable rise in hydro rates, but there will always be the NIMBY protestors that will never adapt to them, no matter how good they are.
I'm for the technology when it becomes cost effective...but they sure are a blight on the horizon.
In general at the locations, costs and planning that Ontario has shown they are a waste of time, money and resources.
1) We are paying for them whether they produce or do not produce
Ontario has the most expensive electricity in North America
The result of subsidized, over-priced wind power that Ontario doesn’t need.
November 1, 2015: rates increase by 8.7%.
January 1, 2016: rates increase by another 10%.
May 1, 2016: rates increase by another 2.5 cents per kWh because “Ontario didn’t sell enough power over the winter”
...
We are subsidizing the wind industry.
4% of our power is from wind energy, yet it costs us 20% of our electrical bill.
Ontario pays 11-13.5 cents per kWh for wind power.
The average price in the U.S. is 7 cents.
The average price for Ontario nuclear, water and gas is 7 cents.
2) right now there are about 3,000 (3,800 more to be built) and they are producing just 425Mw or 2.8% of Ontario's power. While at Niagara Falls Sir Adam Beck 2 alone is over $1,000 Mw.... running at 2/3 capacity all windmills could be turned off if that ONE turbine ran at capacity. The UNUSED hydro capacity right now is 2,800 Mw, about 7X what wind is producing right now.
http://live.gridwatch.ca/home-page.html
3) The ministry of Transportation has ordered atleast half a dozen removed due to proximity to air fields but been over ridden by the province.
http://windsor.ctvnews.ca/transport-...port-1.1901446
4) It encourages the idiots in power to want people to use the much more inefficient and expensive electricity and make the more efficient and cheaper Natural gas (even with this weeks increases from Ontario) illegal
http://www.oodmag.com/community/show...at-with-hydro-!!
5) At $1M to $3M per wind turbine the 6,800 comes to $6,800,000,000+, which if put into a new generating station at Niagara could easily have exceeded wind and been more reliable without infringing on the view, migration routes and residents in the area.
http://www.niagarafallsreview.ca/201...ly-as-designed
"a Niagara Falls regional councillor says the $1.5-billion project is “not producing anything.” “Sir Adam Beck 1 is at 20% (capacity), Sir Adam Beck 2 is also less than capacity and our tunnel is at zero"
and I can go on
http://www.windontario.ca/
I don't like.
Cost. Looks. Use of land. And all of the above too.
I believe the Moses Saunders generation dam in Cornwall can put out over 1000 Mw as well.
Actually over 2000. 912 to the US and 1045 to Canada.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bardern
Sooner or later, it IS the future of power, along with wave and tide production.
Most likely later. To the best of my knowledge there is no current way to store the energy to be used as a baser load. There are ideas but not a single thing under construction.
Something I have noticed is that most Canadians don't realize but 69% of electricity in Canada is already renewable and if you count Nukes we are around 90%+
I wouldn't want to see one from my house so I sympathize with people living in close proximity. Like many things, there is NO perfect solution. Solar farms seem to be gaining popularity but they eliminate too much valuable farm land. There is lots of energy in my septic tank - too bad they couldn't harness that.
Wind and Solar are an expensive joke for power at this and any foreseeable point. To say otherwise is to be ignorant or lying about the carbon footprint to create the windmills or solar plants, the costs, the science and their usefulness.
Ontario has wasted about $5B+ on the current windmills and the results are:
1) tens of thousands of birds killed each year.
2) costs to produce them and costs to buy their electricity costing billions to taxpayers.
3) Yesterday when I looked the entire wind grid was producing 254 Mw or 1.7% of Ontario's production... while several water turbines individually are producing several times the entire grid.
http://live.gridwatch.ca/home-page.html
9:29 June 10, ALL the wind together is 683 Mw (4.1%) while water power has Sir Adam Beck II alone is 1104 Mw, RH Saunder 835 Mw and many others producing significant percentages or more individually than all the wind combined.
*instead of $5B wasted on wind, a new turbine on the Ottawa or Niagara would have cost half that and produced far more power RELIABLY.
4) a blight on the view, property value and safety of Ontarians (Ministry of Transport has been over ridden several times on wind turbine locations!).
and I could go on and on.... wind turbines are unreliable, expensive and an ideologues play thing.... they aren't suitable for everyday reliable use and will never in their lifetime save more carbon than it took to produce them. The only justification for them is posturing and payoffs to companies friendly to the current gov't.