Tom Adams's oped on wind power (Blown Over, Feb. 22) tries to argue that wind energy raises the spectre of unexpected blackout risks, high costs, and unreliable production. Real world experience with wind energy does not support this view.

Wind energy is now the fastest growing source of electricity in the world and is widely recognized as a critical component of any strategy to address climate change and air pollution. In the year 2006 alone, global wind energy capacity grew by 32% -- representing a global investment of US$23-billion -- and as a result wind energy now provides enough energy worldwide to meet the annual electricity consumption of 22.5 million homes.

Mr. Adams' piece also leaves out some important facts that must be brought to light. First, he references a November, 2006, blackout in Europe as "evidence" for the risks associated with wind energy, but, as he himself notes, the cause of the blackout was completely unrelated to wind energy production.

Second, Mr. Adams argues that integrating wind energy into the grid requires costly new investments in transmission infrastructure and interconnections. What he does not say is that many jurisdictions require such investments anyway to meet rising electricity demand and the need to connect any form of new electricity generation to the grid.

Third, Mr. Adams argues that wind energy production in Canada is unreliable, although the overwhelming majority of studies and experience worldwide indicate that wind energy can be reliably integrated into the electricity grid at much higher penetrations than is the case in Canada today, at low cost and in ways that enhance grid stability. The wind energy industry is now working with electricity system operators across Canada to design policies that maximize potential wind energy integration (and its environmental and economic benefits) while maintaining or improving system reliability.

Fourth, Mr. Adams notes that some of Canada's wind farms have not met expected production levels, but fails to point out that such projected production levels are 10-year averages and many Canadian wind farms have only been in operation for one to three years.

Canada's installed wind energy capacity more than doubled in 2006 and provincial governments and utilities have adopted targets that would see wind energy production in Canada increase by a minimum 700% in the next decade. This will allow Canada to finally start capitalizing on its massive wind-energy potential and move to begin to catch up to the world's leading producers and users of this clean and renewable energy resource.

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- Robert Hornung is president, Canadian Wind Energy Association

 

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