Wind power just a load of hot air

IT is an unfortunate fact of nature that during periods of cold weather, such as the one we are currently enduring, there tends to be little wind. At the same time there’s an increased demand for electricity.

On December 1, at the peak demand time of 5 pm, wind managed to contribute less than a tenth of the demand. Furthermore, and of greater significance, wind operated at less than one quarter of the installed wind capacity. In fact, during the whole of 2010 so far, the capacity factor was only 21%.

The consequence of this inefficiency is that the backlog of demand has to be supplied by burning fossil fuels, thereby contributing to environmental pollution.