Letter: Wind Power Is Very Unreliable | Letters to the Editor - Yankton Daily Press
Letter: Wind Power Is Very Unreliable | Letters to the Editor | yankton.net
I grew up on a farm that didn’t have REA until I was 13 years old. When the power came on my Dad bought a refrigerator, deep freeze and welder. We had a windmill to pump water for livestock. Due to the unreliable wind, a storage tank was needed to be able to have water 24-7 for livestock. The next purchase was a pump jack with electric motor to fill the tank and we wouldn’t have to rely on the unreliable wind.
I live on the north side of Avon and can see several wind towers as I sit in my living room. Sometimes they are turning and sometimes not. Nationwide, wind turbines are only 34 percent efficient. At the present time in the US, only 10.3% of electricity comes from wind; 3.4%, solar; both very unreliable energy. Reliable energy: natural gas, 39.9%; coal, 19.7%; petroleum, 1.4%; other, 1.2%. The more we depend on unreliable power is when we will have blackouts like in California.
Related Knowledge Center: ENERGY BASICS: electricity
Electricity is a secondary energy source: it is generated through the conversion of primary energy sources such as natural gas, coal, solar, hydropower, and wind. Electricity’s versatility is not cost-free: a substantial amount of energy is lost in its generation and the cost of storage is high, compared with fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas. The economics of battery technology hold the key to expanded use of renewable sources to generate electricity.