Wind energy is good for Iowas economy, but what happens to consumers when the wind doesnt blow?
Wind power varies both day-to-day and month-to-month. When a turbine isnt spinning, the demand for electricity must be met by other generators either wind generators at another location or generators powered by another fuel source. On a day-to-day basis, utilities already scale their generation up and down to follow consumer demand. The fluctuations in wind power are small compared to the ups and downs of consumer demand. According to utility industry studies, the grids control systems that match supply to demand can easily handle the fluctuations in the wind for systems that produce up to 15% of their total energy from the wind. On a month-to-month basis, the fluctuations in the wind are predictable. A wind developer measures the wind speed at a site before building turbines, and knows how much energy will be produced in each month of the year. The developer and the utility plan ahead for specific, reliable amounts of energy to be produced in each month. Since an Iowa wind farm produc
