Do electricity supply systems really need wind power?
Prior to present anxieties about climatic change due to greenhouse gas emisssions, culminating in the Kyoto Protocol, wind turbines, like all other “renewable” forms of energy were always quietly under continuous review by electricity supply engineers the world over. Electricity has been generated by wind since the experiments of Professor La Cour over a hundred years ago. So why has nearly everyone else in mainstream electricity production been hanging back? The main criteria examined world wide were always reliability and cost of the electricity produced in comparison with fossil fuelled, hydro and nuclear power stations. Wind power for large central station applications always failed but not only on economic grounds. – electricity consumers expect a continuous supply 24 hours a day 365 days a year. Wind turbines, because of the daily irregularity of wind speeds, as well as having questionable economics compared to traditional large electricity generators, can only average annually a
