Wind Energy Does Little to Reduce CO2 Emissions

[wtmusic]

"For some years wind turbines were presented to the public as renewable energy producers that would reduce the CO2 emissions of fossil plants, because less fossil fuels would be burnt, while making the US less dependent on energy imports from unstable regions.

Wind turbine vendors, project developers, financiers, trade organizations, etc., popularized wind energy as saving the planet from global warming with PR campaigns that claimed significant CO2 reductions/kWh, and that capital costs/MW would decrease, and that wind energy costs/kWh would be at grid parity in the near future.

Apparently many people, including legislators, believed it all, because a fear-driven, heavily-subsidized, multi-billion dollar build-out of wind turbine facilities occurred.

After skepticism was expressed by technical analysts in the US, the UK, Denmark, the Netherlands, etc., about claims regarding CO2 reductions due to wind energy during past years, the reductions have finally been more accurately quantified as a result of two studies based on measured operations data of the grids in Colorado, Texas and Ireland, all with significant wind energy penetration."

http://theenergycollective.com/willem-post/64492/wind-energy-reduces-co2-emissions-few-percent?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=The+Energy+Collective+%28all+posts%29