Wind Power Projects Stopped By Wind Sucking Politics
This really upsets me!
It was reported that as much as $6 billion dollars in wind-power proposals in the province of Alberta, Canada (total population of 4 million people), have been put on hold. It would seem that the “Alberta Electric System Operator” thinks that the current 300 mega watts of wind power in the power grid should be capped at a total of 900 MW. The proposals CURRENTLY on the table call for up to 3,000 megawatts of wind power to be generated. The ratioinale is that wind power does not produce power at a reliable enough rate, (some days there is no breeze or wind), so we don’t want more than a certain percentage of our power to be solar or wind generated. So much for a deregulated market place. So what if a coal or gas fired plant needs to operate for a period of time below a certain capacity, that is the power of the Free Market. Private industry wants to build it and take the risks, so why not let them build them. If you think this position should be changed, here is a link to the office of the Premier of Alberta. Call them and complain. Ask the office of the premier to respect the de-regulated power grid that they implemented. The only wind blowing here is coming from the “Alberta Electric System Operator”. Let’s put a cap on him and fire his butt out the door! We want Green Renewable Power and finally industry is willing to build it and some Government employee bows to the lobby of big business. This is a bad day for change.
Here is the story as it appeared in the newspaper.
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Wind power projects on the shelf
CanWest News Service
Thursday, October 19, 2006
CALGARY – As much as $6 billion in Alberta wind-power proposals are in limbo and could be lost as a result of an arbitrary cap on wind-power projects imposed this year, an electricity conference was told this week.
“It basically has stalled the business of wind in Alberta,” Claude Mindorff, president of windfarm developer West WindEau Inc., told the conference.
In May, citing a potential for reliability problems for the provincial network, the Alberta Electric System Operator — which oversees the electricity market and transmission network in Alberta — surprised the industry by announcing that wind-power generation in Alberta, currently at about 300 megawatts of capacity, would be capped indefinitely at 900 MW. However, there are proposals for about 3,000 MW of projects above and beyond the ones already lined up and paid up to meet the 900 MW mark.
“There is over $6 billion stuck in a nice red box,” said Mindorff.
© The Edmonton Journal 2006
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