New facts about rigging data for excessive wind energy Tax credit's part 3
The US Energy Information Agency (EIA) data pertaining to wind energy production is greatly inflated. As I had reported earlier about the claimed wind energy produced in America, which relates to the capacity factor of installed wind farms changed dramatically in 2005. From 2005 forward the wind industry's energy production had magically increased and capacity factor reported to be in the range of 30-35% for every turbine in America. What all this means is that this industry may have received as billions in PTC over payments going back to 2005.
Here are some new facts. For the EIA energy production numbers to be true America's wind turbines would have to be producing with a capacity factor of about 31.5%. All of Europe's turbines are listed as having a capacity factor in the range of 20%.
I also looked up the installed capacity and wind energy production numbers for California going back to 2001. http://energyalmanac.ca.gov/electricity/electric_generation_capacit... What I found was that California's wind energy production per installed MW capacity has declined. In 2001 the turbines were claimed to be producing with a capacity factor of 24%. But in 2013 the reported energy shows a capacity factor of 23%. Even so both figures are still far below the figures give out by the EIA and CA accounts for about 1/5 of the nations installed wind energy. Remember that production tax credits are being paid by the billions from the energy claimed to have been produced at wind farms and these credits also do not take into consideration the tremendous amount of energy used by these wind facilities. Keeping these green renewable energy credits I will finish with a juicy tidbit. Today I came across a document stating that from June 2001- June 2002 Enron was paid wind energy production credits on wind energy numbers 3 times the CA figures claiming an impossible 71% capacity factor.
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Comment
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Comment by Jim Wiegand on April 3, 2015 at 12:04pm
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Do not forget that you are still using their numbers. This is an industry that rigs nearly everything. Unless they can be verified they have most likely been embellished.
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Comment by Frank J. Heller, MPA on April 3, 2015 at 11:15am
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Another quirk, is that hydro and gas plants are kept in reserve as 'peaking power' plants generating power when demand--and spot price, is highest. The result is their 'capacity factor' is low, but their grid value very high; esp. when wind production falls off during peak periods.
So how do you factor in this indispensable quality?
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Here is another calculation from WIKI:
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The Burton Wold Wind Farm consists of ten Enercon E70-E4 wind turbines @ 2 MW nameplate capacity for a total installed capacity of 20 MW.[2] In 2008 the wind farm generated 43,416 MW·h of electricity. (Note 2008 was a leap year.) The capacity factor for this wind farm in 2008 was just under 25%:
As of April 2011, the Danish wind farm Horns Rev 2[3] (the world's largest when it was inaugurated in September 2009[4] comprising 91 Siemens SWT-2.3-93 wind turbines each of 2.3 MW) with a nominal total capacity of 209 MW, has the best capacity factor of any offshore wind farm at 46.7% having produced over 1.5 years 1,278 GW·h.[5] The record for an onshore wind farm is held by Burradale, which reached an annual capacity factor of 57.9% for 2005.[6]
According to,[7] the average capacity factor for wind farms in 2008 was 21%."
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I've found it easier to change a census form, than to change legislation.
So by finding the 'right' person in the EIA to clarify the form, our findings, the production 'creep', we may be able to change the format to reflect 'energy-in' and 'energy-out', and source the 'energy-in'.
A footnote on reporting which prescribes the formula used for 'energy out' could include subtracting 'energy-in'?
When you do it this way, it becomes a 'FACT', rather than a complaint that goes no-where.
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I found some very inconsistent and suspicious reporting coming out of the central flyway states. For example South Dakota reported a wind capacity factor of just 15% in 2009, 22% in 2010 and then it jumped to a reported capacity factor of 39% in 2011, and then went up again to 42% in 2012. Keep in mind these reported upper wind energy numbers are right there with the Denmark's offshore turbines said to be the most productive in the world.
In North Dakota the reported capacity factor in 2007 was listed at 21%. Then each year up to 2012 it climbs to a reported 41% capacity factor. These may be the reported wind energy production numbers but they are not accurate numbers. They can't be.
It is looking more and more like our wind energy providers are fudging their production numbers with energy taken from electricity actually generated by other forms of energy.
I have other numbers as well. The reported Capacity Factor for the US was reported as being 22% in 2005. For 2013 it was reported to be 32%.
Then one has to keep in mind that whole wind energy picture gets really muddy when one realizes that many of these wind projects are owned by the same people that operate regional natural gas, fossil fuel and coal fired energy plants. I pulled all this info from the EIA site as well.
Starting in 2008 -FORM EIA-923 POWER PLANT OPERATIONS REPORT INSTRUCTIONS 1. Required Respondents: Nuclear plants and plants using renewable energy sources (wind, solar, geothermal, and water in conventional hydroelectric) or other plants where the energy source is solely purchased steam or waste heat. Fuel consumption data are not required for these types of plants. Report generation by energy source for nuclear, wind, solar, geothermal, conventional hydroelectric and miscellaneous sources such as purchased steam or waste heat. Report nuclear data by generating unit. For all other plant types, ignore the Unit Column.
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Comment by Mary Kay Barton on April 2, 2015 at 6:46pm
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The wind industry LIE??? Our government participate in a cover-up??? What else is new.
The Capacity Factors of all the wind projects here in New York State averaged 23.5%. I've read reports that claim 'efficiency' (an oxymoron when referring to wind LEMONS, for sure!) is reduced by as much as 30% by bug remains that build up on the blades. Ice accumulating on the blades can have the same effect (It's winter nearly half the year here in western NY).
Energy analyst Glenn Schleede ran the numbers, and figures that:
ONE (1) 450 MW gas-fired Combined Cycle Generating Unit operating at a 60% Capacity Factor, located at New York City (where the power is needed in New York State), would provide more power than all of New York State's installed wind factories combined, at 1/4 of the capital costs -- and would have significantly reduced CO2 emissions and created far more jobs than all those wind farms – without all the added costs (economic, environmental, and civil), and of all the additional transmission lines that must be run across the state to New York City.
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Kathy, no wonder we think alike.....Astoria, Queens and Bethlehem, Pa.
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We have to add insect kill with 300-400' blades...How many more bees have to die?
Problem is, are there entomological studies of insect kill; especially of rare & endangered species?
Production numbers need to be verified monthly and REC's adjusted accordingly. Cathy is right, the wind at 400 ft. is fairly constant.
Anything, like deforestation which increases global warming must be deducted from carbon subsidies.....I noted that a new proposal in another state addresses this concern by proposing even greater re-plantings than acreage clear cut. So the loss of forest for access roads, etc. is becoming a factor in new permits IN OTHER STATES,
System abuse is creeping in. Do we have evidence of awind farm of 'laundering' power coming from a gas-fired generator, so they could get more subsidies and a higher rate during peak demand when wind was weak. Raising the possibility also means measuring the power flowing INTO a wind farm as well as that coming out.
An interesting populist proposal is to tax power produced in Maine but exported out of state since it resonates with the stop the pipeline/stop the oil rail shipment movement. Banning exports of power for economic reasons and social/environmental reasons might be worth thinking about.
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Just looked at the reported wind energy production in Maine for the years 2009-2012. The numbers range range from a 20-21% capacity factor. Even though these numbers are embellished (not being net energy production numbers) these are still some of the lowest reported wind energy numbers for any state. Iowa wind numbers were the highest I found reporting with about a 32% capacity factor.
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What can be done, I hope, is to point out that the theoretical numbers of capacity, etc., don't take into account that the wind resource at 140 m and land available all over, does not take into account pre-existing land use for human or wilflife. It is only theoretically available. So while these push the new taller, bigger rotor as being able to get 30% capacity for a 1.8 MW turbine, it will always give a better return to put these more expensive, resource intense machines in the states that had the wind resource at 50 m - TX and Iowa etc. In addition, there's the question of the economic and resource cost for transmission. Jim probably knows better than anyone how often the story line has been transmission lines kill way more birds than 'windmills'. And people get the aesthetcs of transmission lines better than they can grasp 2 or more acre -air sweeping rotors on 330 plus ft tower marching across the ridgeline.
On the bright side, I just saw five osprey soaring over a short stretch of coastal road. They are at particular risk from industrial wind.
Maine as Third World Country:
CMP Transmission Rate Skyrockets 19.6% Due to Wind Power
Click here to read how the Maine ratepayer has been sold down the river by the Angus King cabal.
Maine Center For Public Interest Reporting – Three Part Series: A CRITICAL LOOK AT MAINE’S WIND ACT
******** IF LINKS BELOW DON'T WORK, GOOGLE THEM*********
(excerpts) From Part 1 – On Maine’s Wind Law “Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine if the law’s goals were met." . – Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, August 2010 https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/From Part 2 – On Wind and Oil Yet using wind energy doesn’t lower dependence on imported foreign oil. That’s because the majority of imported oil in Maine is used for heating and transportation. And switching our dependence from foreign oil to Maine-produced electricity isn’t likely to happen very soon, says Bartlett. “Right now, people can’t switch to electric cars and heating – if they did, we’d be in trouble.” So was one of the fundamental premises of the task force false, or at least misleading?" https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-swept-task-force-set-the-rules/From Part 3 – On Wind-Required New Transmission Lines Finally, the building of enormous, high-voltage transmission lines that the regional electricity system operator says are required to move substantial amounts of wind power to markets south of Maine was never even discussed by the task force – an omission that Mills said will come to haunt the state.“If you try to put 2,500 or 3,000 megawatts in northern or eastern Maine – oh, my god, try to build the transmission!” said Mills. “It’s not just the towers, it’s the lines – that’s when I begin to think that the goal is a little farfetched.” https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/flaws-in-bill-like-skating-with-dull-skates/
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Hannah Pingree on the Maine expedited wind law
Hannah Pingree - Director of Maine's Office of Innovation and the Future
"Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine."
https://pinetreewatch.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/
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