More Issues With Wind Energy

An energy mess is developing in Europe:

Belgian energy company Electrabel said its Doel 4 nuclear reactor would stay offline at least until the end of this year after major damage to its turbine, with the cause confirmed as sabotage.

Unfortunately, several other Belgian reactors have been shut down for maintenance in recent months due to what may be a generic flaw in the design - this seems to be the same issue that affected  nuclear plant in the UK last week. The loss of Doel 4 therefore means that fully half of the country's nuclear capacity is offline. Doel 4 could be out for months...

Energy experts have raised the spectre of possible blackouts this winter and say Belgium will have to boost interconnection capacity with neighbouring countries to prevent power shortages.

As many know, Europe gets a greater percent of its energy from 'alternative' sources as compared to the United States. What many don't realize is that when temperatures are coldest in winter, the wind is usually calmest.

For example, on February 11, 2011, Nowata, OK reached a state record of -31°F. Wichita reached the 4th coldest temperature in its history with -17°F. Winds were calm throughout the region! That same week, wind turbines froze in Texas and, in Canada,

The comment from GDF Suez Energy?
“We can’t control the weather,” Julie Vitek said in an interview from company headquarters in Houston, Texas. 

Wind energy often fails when it is needed the most -- extreme cold and extreme heat when demand for electricity is high. Sunday afternoon, I wrote about concerns about U.S. energy supplies for the upcoming winter.

My opinion: To allow ourselves to become even more dependent on wind energy is madness.