Not sure about you but I hear things on the news about climate change. Also there seems to be a big push to get us into the green energy arena. Lots of one-sided comments have been made about the actual costs of production of electricity. Several folks have made comments in the area newspapers and suggest that wind and solar are the way to go and the sooner we can shut down the coal fired generation plants the better off we will be.
When reading this remember – follow the money.
Point one – Solar is only available during the time the sun can hit a solar panel. If it is day time and there is a cloud or bad weather in the way, there will be no power generated.
Point two – Wind generation has it problems also as there is no power generated when there is no wind. In general, overall the amount of power generated by wind for the entire US is around 17 percent of the time. This is referred to as the amount of time it is utilized. Also there seems to be lots of birds and bats that lose their lives around a wind generator.
Point three – When either of the above are producing power they can place that power on the grid and others have to back off. That is just one of the things these folks have that is in their corner. If they can just place power on the grid when they have power there is no need to have contracts to provide power like the coal-fired plants. That means that they do not have to go out and purchase power to maintain their contacts, like when there is no wind.
Plus they have lots of subsidies that give them money to erect, install and operate wind and solar generation. If the green energy group were to work on the same level as the coal power generation, there would be no debate on this subject.
The coal-fired plant in Colstrip can produce power for about $35/Megawatt. If the wind generation were on the same playing field, they would need to get a contract with someone to purchase that power, just like the owners of the electrical companies. When the wind is not there they would need to purchase power from someone to make up the contract amount, so they would need to contract power for about $75/Megawatt.
But the part we do not see or hear about is the subsidies that come to them around the horn or from the supplier of the equipment and assembly of the generation farms. That would bring the cost to the taxpayers to around $170/Megawatt.
When wind and solar do have a good day and producing power to the grid, the coal fired plants back off and keep the grid stable. What this does is cause thermal stress in the coal fired boiler / turbine areas.
A good website for more info on wind power: http://stopthesethings.com/
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