Originally Posted by Autonomousmind
In April 2011, the UK’s total installed wind power capacity was 5,204 MW.
As of 3.30pm this afternoon, with the temperature around the country varying between 2 degrees and 6 degrees celsius and most people at home using power to stay warm, those wind turbines were delivering less than 11% of their stated capacity, contributing a mere 1.3% of the UK’s energy supply.
Is there any more clear a demonstration of the folly of the government’s plans to spend billions of pounds adding more wind capacity, when it cannot come close to replacing the amount of energy generated by coal-fired and nuclear power plant that will be decommissioned?
What compounds this folly is that additional gas-fired power will have to be built just to act as back up for the wind power on days like this. There is no economic sense to paying twice to install capacity, particularly given the extent of taxpayer subsidy being devoted to wind turbines to make them more ‘affordable’ – code for helping generators make money from them at our expense.
If this doesn’t convince those who favour wind of their nonsensical folly, what will?