We Don't Need No Stinking Giant Fans

I emailed Sask Power and asked about cost. How much does wind power compare to nat gas in cost? Got a nice email back that said, IT'S NONE OF YOUR DAM BUSINESS.Thanks Brad.

DAM BUSINESS?

Does Saskatchewan generate power through dams?

set you free :YES

This article contains nothing new to the people of rural Ontario who have to live near these behemoths.

a@c 1:09p.m. -- I have some information (to the best of my knowledge) for comparable costs in Ontario, which are probably a useful yardstick:

Wind generation standard offer -- $0.12/kWh, based on a 20-year contract with the Province.

Solar generation standard offer -- $0.52/kWh, based on a similar contract with the Province.

Average conventional central generation -- $0.035/kWh, based on all-in cash costs of OPG:

- Coal generation -- $0.039/kWh.
- Nuclear generation -- $0.042/kWh.
- Hydro-electric generation -- $0.0146/kWh

Caution: what data that can be should be checked against the Ontario ISO website; even though the OPG data are more than a decade old (Ontario has the same problem as Sask re: non-disclosure of the central generating company's cost structure), I believe they are actually directional quite close.

Assuming they are correct, it sort of explains the utilities' reasons for wanting to keep the cost of renewables to themselves.

a@c, these extra costs are just going to show up in power bills, especially after they install the smart (dumb) meters. It is called shafting the taxpayer.

That was an interesting article. I followed the link to the .pdf of the research paper. It would be interesting to learn if there are any affordable instruments available to enable a homeowner near a wind turbine project to measure his/her exposure to infrasounds.

The last I seen on Ont costs wind at 15.7 and hydro at 2. Solar was at 30+. IESO will tell all not like Sask power which told me to just shut up and pay your bill.Thanks Brad.

Gordinkneehill-
There are instruments available but the province ( MOE) will not recognize your results. In fact, they themselves are incapable of measuring infrasound thus making this a totally rigged game. They will only allow handpicked acousticians to do their sound measuring and for the most part infrasound is not measured. What could possibly go wrong? The Medical Officer of Health and the MNR are totally in the tank with this. It's appalling.

Loved the 4th definition of serfdom...I would add "soon to be the area of a province once known as rural Alberta" thanks to the idjits here and the UN lawyer they elected for Premier.

You mean beyond the not so hidden hazards to national economies, families, not to say every creature that flies above ground?

So they aren't just job and bird shredders?

David Southam; I listened to an American program on these numbers, according to the panelists, coal is 7 cents per kilowatt hour, wind and solar are 22 cents per kilowatt hour, the Copper Mountain solar farm covers 380 acres of land, generates enough power for 17 thousand homes in the daylight, when most of us enjoy the sunlight, and it employs 3 people full time costing taxpayers 60 million to install. EcoMENTALism is priceless it seems. I know of another wind farm that drove one of the operators wacky at 47, whether it was coming or helped by the constant swooshing sounds I don't know, but I'm glad they are miles away from me. Ecodorks know no shame when offered the collection plate, they'll pocket it all.

that would be a good report to launch a class action lawsuit off of. Any lawyers in the crowd, sign me up!

The question ladies and gentlemen, is why do we as citizens in this country, put up with this?

There is no debate that wind energy is a fraud, and there is no question that those who live next to wind farms suffer from the noise, and there is no question that wind farms kill thousands of birds.

So why have we allowed our governments to force this on us? Why has government become so unaccountable to its citizens that it would knowingly engage in a fraud that does nothing other than enrichen those behind the scam?

SaskPower has no incentive to be an economically responsible crown corp. Whatever costs it incurs get put into the rate base and picked up by all Saskatchewan consumers.

The feelgood eco power policy of the former government has bee carried forward by the new government. They are heavily invested in carbon capture. However, awareness is building. Common and economic sense will out.

Brad Wall will soon sense that the public desire is for responsible leadership in the power production industry driven by sound economics and a desire for low cost electricity and gas by all including the new businesses in the extraction of minerals and oil. He will see the parade forming and will jump in front soon.

Posted by: TJ at June 23, 2012 5:27 PM

Um. The government can be a force for good?

: rroe at June 23, 2012 5:38 PM: Fat chance.

intensity typical of windmill generators can have psychosomatic adverse effects on humans, such as depression, anxiety, irritability, insomnia and psychosis.

-

All this and more just from the green tax assessment on your future tripled electricity bills.

Not to mention all the millions of dead birds and bats.

Just wait till these left wing green nut jobs can't go outside to enjoy their lovely green scenery because of the trillions of frigging fly's, mosquitoes, and gnats..

WONDERFUL ENVIRONMENTAL FUTURE BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE BIG GREEN SPINNING KILLING MACHINES..

Energy in America: Dead Birds Unintended Consequence of Wind Power Development

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/08/16/energy-in-america-dead-birds-unintended-consequence-wind-power-development/#ixzz1yf6GPNng

Hang on. I just skimmed over the pdf.

"Psychosomatic health risks have been proposed to be the result of infrasound"...

We can explain "denier"/"citizen scientists".

Psychosis.

Dead Bats all over the world-

http://www.mesc.usgs.gov/BatsWindmills/

I sent Kate a url about Waterloo, Australia: http://www.todaytonightadelaide.com.au/?page=Story&StoryID=1394
It deals with problems similar to those referred to in this post. Very much worth watching.

Ahhh, McGuinty. Just can't get enough of this picture.

http://quixoteslaststand.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/untitled2.png

the french were toying around with "sonic" weapons in the 50 - 60T's, using a base vibration of 7 cps, very damaging it was, and some useless tools are now just catching on!!!!

Tying together this story with Kate's post about Navistar engines and the EPA ("Is there anything Obama can't do?", June 23, 2012, 12:24a.m.), I'd say that a dangerous element of "the agenda" is how it surreptitiously transforms public policy over the course of a leftward change in government -- creating from the public's perspective a sort of "unintended consequence" of voting for the left-wing party.

Just as the Navistar engine development started as an effort to commercialize new technology for the financial and environmental benefit of America (under the Bush administration), electricity-sector restructuring in Ontario started as an effort to improve the performance of a seriously underperforming industry through the introduction of privatization and market-based reforms (under Mike Harris).

And, just as the Navistar story then changed into a story about the persecution of American innovation by environmental activism, electricity restructuring in Ontario became about closing the coal plants by the installation of giant fans (and the return to industry status quo -- and the Liberals supported the Harris restructuring plan in the first place, their own "John Kerry moment" on the subject).

The only grim satisfaction we can take from the story about Ontario wind power is its absolute failure to even come close to to its intended target -- as a result of this story, I checked the Ontario ISO at 14:00ET yesterday and found that wind generation was contributing a whopping 78 megawatts to total Ontario demand of about 19,000 megawatts. So, after nine years of McGuinty bait-and-switch on the subject, we are 78 megawatts of the way to replacing about 6,000 megawatts of coal generating capacity, or about 1% of the total. So, at this rate, the original 2009 closure date objective, which is now sitting at 2015, will need to be pushed back again to about 2900. "We don't need no stinking giant fans!" -- don't worry, with these people in charge, you're not likely to get them!

Sort of reminds me of the old Soviet-era Russian joke about communism being just over the horizon -- which is true, if you understand that the horizon is an imaginary line that recedes as you move toward it.

It is heartening to know that help is on the way to affected residents of rural Ontario in the form of scientific evidence to support their contentions about the health risks of wind turbines. And, it is truly depressing that electricity restructuring in Ontario today means nothing more than a few human interest stories on the CBC about a few individual lawsuits against wind companies.

One would think the wholesale slaughter of birds and bats would be enough to block these things.

Does the sound of dynamite exploding at the base of a wind turbine cause any infrasound? Just curious.