The Renewable Energy Reality Check

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33. You seem to be studiously avoiding the subject of the production tax credit

which is the really the only reason why wind's prices are as low as they are. As you said yourself, no businessman likes uncertainly - and when wind is dependent on government handouts it doesn't get much more uncertain:

"The wind energy industry is dependent on something even more unpredictable than wind: Congress. Hidden in the turmoil over the "fiscal cliff" compromise was a tax credit for wind energy.

Uncertainty over the credit had lingered long before the last-minute political push, causing the industry to put off further long-term planning. So while the now-approved tax credit revives prospects for an industry facing tens of thousands of layoffs, don't expect to see many new turbines coming up soon.

Growing Uncertainty

Mark Goodwin, head of developer Apex Wind Energy, says his company was "on pins and needles" over the "fiscal cliff" negotiations. It was worried about extension of the tax credit, which keeps wind energy prices competitive with electricity produced from fossil fuels."

http://www.npr.org/2013/01/03/168553495/wind-industry-secures-tax-credit-but-damage-may-be-done

Energy is everywhere. If you subsidize any number of technologies enough, you can squeeze energy out. But wind is costing taxpayers $12 billion/year and providing 2.3% of America's utility power, nearly all of it in Plains states with very little effect on prices east of the Mississippi.

You say wind is going to be "dispatchable" - how? In what possible respect could you guarantee that wind will be available at any time? Saying that there is "too much at stake for it not to happen" is just goofy, and where the whole renewable movement jumps the shark. The fact is, that there's a much better chance that despite increases in efficiency, in patching in windfarms from across the country, in occupying vast stretches of real estate with wires and batteries and switching systems and backup systems that the juice is just never going to be worth the squeeze.

Climate change is on us now, and we're playing games with toys.