Letter: Facts point to success of higher wind energy standards

[jpak]

http://www.coloradoan.com/article/20130711/OPINION03/307110033/Letter-Facts-point-success-higher-wind-energy-standards

Carl Langner’s July 7 letter on wind power and Senate Bill 252 (“Rural energy standard is unachievable”) contains a number of errors.

Wind energy reduces electricity prices by displacing output from the most expensive and least efficient power plants. According to the Colorado Public Utilities Commission, a single wind energy purchase in the state “will save ratepayers $100 million” and allow them to “lock in a price for 25 years.”

In 2012, wind energy provided more than 20 percent of the electricity in Iowa and South Dakota, and more than 10 percent in seven other states, while European countries are even higher. Langner’s claim that wind energy cannot provide more than 8 percent of the electricity on the power system is therefore demonstrably untrue.

Changes in wind energy output occur slowly and predictably. As a result, utility system operators can reliably accommodate large amounts of energy with only minimal increases in the use of the reserves they have always used to accommodate changes in electricity supply and demand.

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