Wind power is controversial but should keep on keeping on, says report
U.S. wind-power capacity has quadrupled in the past six years and could eventually produce up to 7 percent of the nation's electricity. Easy-breezy? Not quite: Wind-industry growth lacks "any truly coordinated planning," says a report from the National Academy of Sciences. Developers and officials should receive more guidance, particularly around siting, NAS says; in the helpful words of contributor Paul G. Risser, "The human impacts of wind farms can be both positive and negative." Among the positives are global effects like cleaner air and less oil use, but those are balanced, according to NAS, by negative local effects like noise, disrupted views, and effects on bats and birds. The report cites inadequate research on feathered-friend fatalities, but grants that more birds are killed by foes like vehicles, buildings, power lines, and cats than turbines. To sum up: keep on with the wind power, as it helps mitigate The Most Important Problem of Our Time. Just don't make decisions on the fly.
source: The Tuscaloosa News, Associated Press, Randolph E. Schmid, 07 May 2007
source: The New York Times, Matthew L. Wald, 04 May 2007
source: Los Angeles Times, Margot Roosevelt, 04 May 2007
source: San Francisco Chronicle, Keay Davidson, 04 May 2007
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Comments
View as Flat
geosynchronous Posted 3:11 am
08 May 2007
These projections do just that, which is why I do not consider them credible.
Furthermore, the argument that wind cannot provide more than 20% of the power on the electric grid is a weak one, similarly based on a "we haven't seen it yet, so it can't be done" mentality. Grid operators are in fact smart people who are devising innovations of their own to deal with increasing portions of intermittent renewables connected to their systems. Look to Europe for guidance here.
The key here is not the findings coming out of the study, but the assumptions going into it. If those assumptions allowed leeway for a little more realistic range of possible futures, they would be more trustworthy... and more inspiring.
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