NY Wind Power - A Huge Waste of Capacity

The list below from the NY Independent System Operator shows the capacity factors for NY wind farms up to 2010. 

Basically the capacity factor for any power plant is what it actually produces in megawatt hours compared to what it could produce at full capacity over the same time usually averaged annually.

Wind has a dismal record as you can see.  You can see that all the NY wind farms averaged together only have a capacity factor of about 23% as of 2010.  To give you a comparison nuclear power plants have capacity factors usually in the 90%+ range.

In  other words for all the negative impacts and tax breaks NY wind farms all put together waste 77% of their capacity when averaged annually against their actual rated capacity in 2010!!!  

World wide if a wind farm can produce a 30% + (which is rare) especially on shore
 that would be a spectacular output for wind.

Keep this clearly in mind when you hear the propaganda wind developers spew out about the capacity of a wind farm or how many homes can be powered.  Pure BS!!!  Just reduce that figure by 75 to 80%!

So if Bill Moore's Galloo Island Wind Farm claims a "capacity" of 100 megawatts it is highly probable it will only produce less than 30% of that capacity on an annual averaged basis.

Another way to look at this is if he puts up 30 huge visually intrusive bird slashing wind turbines, in essence the capacity factor effect of 30% ( and that is generous) will essentially in effect  be like 21 of them are doing nothing but siting there and destroying the view and wildlife. 

Yes... when the wind blows most of the turbines will spin and produce power, except for those broken or getting routine maintenance.  But when the output is average annually compared to its potential capacity it will be in effect like 21 turbines are a waste.  Because sometimes NONE of those turbines will spin or spin at a highly reduced rate due to the lack of wind and won't power a single home despite the inflated claims.

But the sad fact is to get this paltry output where more than 70% of the capacity is wasted, Moore will need all 30 turbines so he can claim 100 MW capacity even though 70% is wasted.  It is a wind industry shell game!  And this is what some people are willing to throw tax money at and trade off the beauty and the environmentally sensitive Eastern Lake Ontario Basin for???  Seriously????

This is an INSANE environmental/financial decision.

Now as an amusing side note.  When I was fighting against a wind farm in N. AZ the wind developer knew we had gotten onto wind's dismal capacity factor record vs the capacity scam.  So the power company promoting the wind farm and buying the power changed tactics and said in a PR piece in the paper the wind farm would produce power about 80% of the time.

They must have figured we were really stupid!  I could claim my car runs 100 % of the time when I need it but that doesn't tell you anything about its actual performance.  It could be sitting in the driveway spitting and sputtering  and going nowhere useful or moving only 1 MPH and I could still make that claim it is running.

A 1000MW wind farm could claim it is producing power even if it is only producing .5 megawatts!!!

The wind stupidity continues and gets more creative all the time.