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there is no wind industry.

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What Really Powers Wind Turbines? Lots and Lots of Government Money

April 28, 2013 by Paul Crowe

Wind energy is expensive and uncompetitive and would not exist without government subsidies

Wind energy is a finely tuned machine for collecting government money
Image credit: Barbara Kelley – Wall Street Journal

Wind turbines are popping up in more and more rural communities, yet wind turbines, like so many other “green energy” projects, represent a business that can’t stand on its own two feet without massive government involvement, from tax subsidies and tax credits to outright grants and the result is increasingly expensive electricity from locations with marginal wind.

It’s not wind, it’s money

The CEO of a wind energy company agrees:

Since 2009, as part of the president’s stimulus, wind-farm developers have been able to get a federal cash grant or tax credit covering up to 30% of their capital investment in a new project.

After the 2009 subsidy became available, wind farms were increasingly built in less-windy locations, according to the Department of Energy’s “2011 Wind Technologies Market Report.” The average wind-power project built in 2011 was located in an area with wind conditions 16% worse than those of the average project in 1998-99.

The government itself even agrees:

The Department of Energy admits that this trend is due at least in part to the 2009 federal subsidy: Because the grants that companies receive aren’t based on how much power they produce, “it is possible that developers have seized this limited opportunity to build out the less-energetic sites.” Meanwhile, wind-power prices have increased to an average $54 per megawatt-hour, compared with $37 in 2005.

Not enough wind? Just add money

Is it any wonder that North East township became a good location for wind energy after the 2009 subsidies appeared? Previous developers had looked here and lost interest, but when big government handouts were offered, “further studies” showed the wind had magically increased.

More government dependents

Wind turbines run on government moneyA real business supplies a product or service customers will pay for, there’s no need for continual stimulus to keep it going, yet that’s what wind energy requires. The more turbines developers install while the subsidies exist, the more individuals there will be who come to depend on the tax dollars they are paid with.

A quick glance at the American Wind Energy Association’s website illustrates this. In July, the association is planning a Capitol Hill event aimed at “educating legislators” on the importance of industry tax credits.

When it finally becomes clear the country can’t afford to prop up all of these green energy companies that can’t support themselves, everyone who depends on the stimulus will fight to keep the money flowing. It’s a huge project creating a new class of government dependents. Putting up these massive, utility scale wind turbines is just a giant sign telling the world you’re accepting government money.

Why the rush? Follow the money

Here in North East, there seems to be a huge rush to get this project under way, ignoring the questions and concerns of the public. The hurry up attitude seems oddly out of place for such a massive, high dollar plan with so many long term consequences. Maybe the best answer to many of the questions is a simple one: Follow the money.

Filed Under: Wind Energy Disadvantages Tagged With: government spending, PTC, tax credit, taxpayers, wind welfare

What can you do?

  • Be informed! Read as many articles on this website as you have time for, so you can understand the issue. Do your own research. Check us out.
  • Tell your neighbors about the wind turbines, point them to this website so they can learn more.

Comments

  1. Abby L. says

    May 9, 2013 at 11:35 am

    Thank you for this post and informing the public of where all this money comes from — our pockets! Certain political parties spend a lot of time complaining about government “handouts” for welfare, food stamps, medicaid, etc. Wind energy is over 80% funded, in one way or another, by our state and federal tax dollars. I hope that the leaseholders who have their hands out accepting this government money are not the same people who complain about other government programs.

Unfortunately

The less you know about wind energy,
the more you'll like it.

Why wind developers never understand …

It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.

~ Upton Sinclair

Don’t know – Don’t care

Is willful ignorance necessary
to promote wind energy?

No, but it helps.

Climate Change

Another thing I must point out is that you cannot prove a vague theory wrong. … Also, if the process of computing the consequences is indefinite, then with a little skill any experimental results can be made to look like the expected consequences.

~ Richard Feynman, 1964

It’s not on-demand, it’s no-demand

Wind energy is "no-demand" electricity. If the wind isn't blowing and you demand electricity, the answer is no.

Wind – expensive, inefficient, unreliable



December 1923 Popular Science cover dreaming about generating electricity from windmills, and though the dream never dies, the dream doesn't work, didn't then, doesn't now and without huge government giveaways of your money, no wind farms would get built anywhere. The government forces utilities to buy wind power so payments to landowners are simply wind welfare.


Wind energy runs on tax credits

"I will do anything that is basically covered by the law to reduce Berkshire's tax rate, for example, on wind energy, we get a tax credit if we build a lot of wind farms. That's the only reason to build them. They don't make sense without the tax credit."
~ Warren Buffett - from interview with Fortune magazine

Wind investments and high cost green energy

“I’m in the wind business … I’ve lost my ass in the business. ... Hey, we can get on everything green. We can get on everything renewable. Then the cost of power will go up ten times."
~ T. Boone Pickens - on Morning Joe on MSNBC

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