[at-l] Development group endorses wind farm

[ellen at clinic.net (ellen)]

>"...I guess I'm neutral, it surely beats black smoke belching from a chimney or a hydro-dam ruining a perfectly good river."

Like most environmental disputes this one is not black and white. But the impact on black smoke will be considerably less than comparable generation from coal would suggest.

Wind is the least efficient method of generating electricity. The wind blows at times of its own choosing, not at times most convenient for human desires.

The developer says the blades will be turning only 30 percent of the time on average and I suspect that is an exaggeration. I've take dozens of photos of wind farms and only rarely are the turbine blades actually moving.

Anyway, no coal plants are likely to be shut down because of the Maine wind development. At most a coal plant might curb its production occasionally. More likely the use of another alternative energy source will be shut down, such as the plant nearby that generates electricity from mostly waste wood.

Maine already produces a greater percentage of its energy needs from renewable resources and the state is awash in electrical generating capacity. The bottle neck is not a lack of ?generating capacity, but a lack of transmission line capacity to export the energy to places that need it.

Even if a coal plant by happenstance has to reduce its production, the pollution savings won't be proportionate to the energy production reduction. Coal plants work best when run at full capacity. Running at less than capacity increases the pollution per unit of energy generated.

Weary