whatyareckon

In the absence of mandates directing grid managers to take chaotic wind or solar power ahead of conventional power and/or massive subsidies directed to retailers encouraging them to take it and/or heavy fines imposed on them if they refuse to, there is simply no commercial market for power which can only be generated occasionally, in ideal wind conditions and/or when the sun is shining, on cloudless days.

Back in 1983 the American Wind Industry Association claimed that wind power would be “competitive and self-supporting on a national level by the end of the decade if assisted by tax credits and augmented by federally sponsored R&D”. That was 36 years ago. And there was no lack of assistance in the form of tax credits and federally sponsored R&D, along with a whole bunch of other punitive mandates and targets designed to cripple conventional generators and favour chaotically intermittent wind power.

Now…