Eric, here's another aspect of wind generation impact on future US, and in particular future US regional, electricity prices which was also brought to my attention by my 'acquaintance' in the business. See
http://www.energy.gov/news/7462.htm
Basically, the US Dep't of Energy is finally waking up to the fact that the locations where ( gov't subsidized ) wind farms have been allowed to be constructed are also locations where there is insufficient total electricity consumption to consume the additional windpower that is coming online over the course of the next couple of years, where there is insufficient instant response natgas turbine generator capacity to back up this windpower, where there is insufficient transmission line capacity to carry that windpower outside of the region etc. From a purely logical standpoint it only stands to reason that the tops of mountains, the middle of the prairie, and other 'good' wind generator sites from the standpoint of available wind, are exactly what makes these sites bad for electricity consumption i.e. businesses don't have any reason to locate there.
So basically these regions are becoming stuck with wind power that they cannot consume. And the only way for this wind power to find other markets with much higher energy consumption levels where it CAN be consumed is for SOMEONE to pay for the construction of transmission lines to carry it there. Obviously the wind farm owners cannot afford to do this ( since they would already be losing money were it not for the gov't tax breaks / subsidies ). The local midwest utility customers cannot do this either, since the added cost of capital expenditures for beefed up transmission lines by their own local utility ( which are not actually needed for any purpose other than the 'export' of surplus wind power ) would send their electric rates into the stratosphere.
As a result, Washington has now come up with a 'never let a good crisis go to waste' fix for this situation. The idea is to use the northeast regional power failure which occurred several years ago as justification for a federal program to construct vastly increased region to region transmission line capacity ... which coincidentally would allow presently 'unusable' midwest wind power to be transported into the northeast US market. Guesstimated costs are on the order of $200 BILLION. Anticipated revenue sources for this new transmission line construction will be a small percentage of federal tax money and a large percentage passed on to all northeast US electricity customers in the form of an electric bill surcharge !
I am told that every 'green energy' and environmental group in the country is lobbying full force for this Dep't of Energy proposal. The only two 'sane' voices are the NYISO and the ISONE, both of which are already facing the issue of system regulation problems / added costs of standby natgas turbine generation etc. caused by the growth of wind power in their own service areas. And lest the Canadian contingent think that they will escape unscathed, both Ontario and Quebec are also party to this regional power transmission 'brainstorm'.
Again, the biggest 'beef' over the wind power issue is that the true overall economics are absolutely disastrous ( see the Spanish studies and more recently
http://www.winddaily.com/reports/Spa...eport_999.html ) . This regional power transmission 'brainstorm' will be, in essence, an IMMENSE wind power subsidy to be funded without the consent, and mostly without the knowledge, of tens of millions of electricity customers.
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