Dive Summary:
- A new report by the Cascade Policy Institute and Reason Foundation argues wind energy would cost more than energy derived from fossil fuels and would not provide the expected reductions in carbon emissions as the unpredictable nature of winds would make the energy difficult to integrate into the utility grid and result in the need for back-up generation.
- The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) responded by saying the report's research did not support the report's own conclusions; the findings in the report "by fossil fuel-funded groups" led the AWEA to conclude that "wind energy can readily and reliably provide 50% or more of our electricity."
- Michael Goggins, AWEA's Manager of Transmission Policy, fact checked claims made in an American Enterprise Institute study on the cost of wind energy, declaring that the study overestimated the cost of wind energy by 500% based on Department of Energy data that does not appear to exist.
From the article:
"... The Cascade-Reason research says that with the high intermittency of wind leads to wide variations in energy output at different times and in different locations leading to the need for back-up capacity that, in many cases, comes from fossil fuel generators -- making it not only more costly, but limiting the carbon reducing potential of wind.
In response to the Reason Foundation research, the American Wind Energy Association blog responds, 'A number of fossil fuel-funded groups recently set out to attack wind energy by paying for a new report claiming wind energy is difficult to integrate onto the utility system and doesn't provide the expected benefits. The only problem? The Reason Foundation's analysis ended up producing results that contradict those claims and actually support the opposite conclusions.' ..."