I was invited to appear on the Canadian podcast, “Conversations That Matter,” with host Stuart McNish recently to talk about the realities around wind power.
"... the building of huge wind industry installations across their country’s landscape...including on indigenous lands..."
Wait until the indigenous people see all of the dead ravens and other spirit birds laying dead on the ground. Critters mean alot to their Native culture.
Then again, maybe they won't find the carnage. GVEA set up field cams around their Healy AK area windmills, and found out the dearth of dead birds on the ground was because the 4-footed scavengers found the site to be a nice place to take the family for some fine dining.
excellent interview - for a more concise summary that confirms all of what David said take a look @ Prager U for a 5 min summary of the true costs of windmills
Why intermittent power sources make load following sources extreme expensive and the power grid ever more unreliable.
The efficiency of nuclear energy is dramatically reduced by intermittent sources. The inherent intermittency forces backup (nuclear) power to be able to scale up to 100% within a few minutes, 24/7/365.
In addition, the increase in electricity demand by EVs and heat pumps and industry can still be 50% to 100%.
The first years are therefore considerable underutilization losses for nuclear, which only a government can bridge and is (not yet) interesting for risk-capital as long as renewables compete unfairly when mother nature has it, and not necessarily when the energy is needed.
At the same time, on a sunny summer day, excess solar energy disappears in huge quantities into the dumpster. The more solar panels, the more in the bin in the coming years when the sun is shining.
Batteries are also not suitable for bridging the winter months, especially for industry.
This was excellent. I listened to the whole thing.
About ten years ago, some of my more distant relatives worked for Suncor and were involved in installing the blades on the Suncor wind turbines in Southern Alberta near the Oldman River. The Oldman River is known for very consistent wind. Most of the turbines there are on farmland. However, even in windy Southern Alberta, with lots of open farmland, it looks like Suncor couldn't make a go of it:
Suncor sells wind and solar assets to Canadian Utilities Limited for $730 million
You mention bird turbine blade strikes. There are also turbine blade strikes on bats. We may find bats creepy, and may worry about rabies, but bats are essential to the ecosystem and control insects. There has been research on bat and bird strikes in Alberta for decades, so it is a bit strange that neighboring British Columbia didn't look into this research.
In BC, almost all electricity has been derived from hydro. I'm not sure what the push is for wind in BC. As you point out, the wind power generated from these wind farms won't be consistent, will be more costly that what is being sold, and won't come without its own environmental impacts.
If a person wants a windmill for their house great. Just do it with your own money.
Exactly!!
"... the building of huge wind industry installations across their country’s landscape...including on indigenous lands..."
Wait until the indigenous people see all of the dead ravens and other spirit birds laying dead on the ground. Critters mean alot to their Native culture.
Then again, maybe they won't find the carnage. GVEA set up field cams around their Healy AK area windmills, and found out the dearth of dead birds on the ground was because the 4-footed scavengers found the site to be a nice place to take the family for some fine dining.
excellent interview - for a more concise summary that confirms all of what David said take a look @ Prager U for a 5 min summary of the true costs of windmills
Why intermittent power sources make load following sources extreme expensive and the power grid ever more unreliable.
The efficiency of nuclear energy is dramatically reduced by intermittent sources. The inherent intermittency forces backup (nuclear) power to be able to scale up to 100% within a few minutes, 24/7/365.
In addition, the increase in electricity demand by EVs and heat pumps and industry can still be 50% to 100%.
The first years are therefore considerable underutilization losses for nuclear, which only a government can bridge and is (not yet) interesting for risk-capital as long as renewables compete unfairly when mother nature has it, and not necessarily when the energy is needed.
At the same time, on a sunny summer day, excess solar energy disappears in huge quantities into the dumpster. The more solar panels, the more in the bin in the coming years when the sun is shining.
Batteries are also not suitable for bridging the winter months, especially for industry.
https://youtu.be/rBGL-7r-ito?si=XgmsOeRyDZerFTg6
This was excellent. I listened to the whole thing.
About ten years ago, some of my more distant relatives worked for Suncor and were involved in installing the blades on the Suncor wind turbines in Southern Alberta near the Oldman River. The Oldman River is known for very consistent wind. Most of the turbines there are on farmland. However, even in windy Southern Alberta, with lots of open farmland, it looks like Suncor couldn't make a go of it:
Suncor sells wind and solar assets to Canadian Utilities Limited for $730 million
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/suncor-wind-and-solar-sale-1.6607739
You mention bird turbine blade strikes. There are also turbine blade strikes on bats. We may find bats creepy, and may worry about rabies, but bats are essential to the ecosystem and control insects. There has been research on bat and bird strikes in Alberta for decades, so it is a bit strange that neighboring British Columbia didn't look into this research.
In BC, almost all electricity has been derived from hydro. I'm not sure what the push is for wind in BC. As you point out, the wind power generated from these wind farms won't be consistent, will be more costly that what is being sold, and won't come without its own environmental impacts.
Thanks for speaking to Stuart McNish.