.... and the fire sale continues on failing wind farms

So far Nova Scotia Power Inc. (NSPI), or it's parent company Emera, has bought out wind energy projects at Nuttby, Digby and now Point Tupper.

Of the remaining six projects accepted by NSPI in their Request For Proposals (RFP) due for submission for 31st August 2007, only Dalhousie Mountain has gone ahead with apparent ease. Glen Dhu struggles and there is no sign of life from the Spanish owned Amherst project at all!

Is it purely the global economic recession that has brought these projects to their knees or is it the highly competitive process RFP process they were required to go through? Or could it be simply that this is an industry which can only exist with huge subsidies with private and public money?

It is a "feel good", band aid solution for a much bigger problem than wind energy can ever hope to solve. It is inefficient and expensive. Industrial wind turbines (IWTs) look like they are trying to do something about reducing greenhouse gases (GHGs), but look at the resources they take up in their production (materials, transportation and land area rendered useless) for intermittent power produced at times when there is least demand. In the meanwhile our consumption increases with no sign of significant reductions or abatement.

Do we want to fill our beautiful landscape with these IWTs, becoming as common as telephone poles, as their efficiency decreases quickly with time and our consumption increases or should we be looking for a long term, reliable solution?

While we waste our public/private money on IWTs in a knee jerk reaction to a huge and old problem, the planet is waving at us desperately seeking help - as it drowns in pollution while also dying of thirst.

If we could simply reduce the GHGs for consumer products and services we require and halt the production of GHGs for stuff we don't need at all, we could be making an immediate difference to our waterways and atmosphere while aiding the millions of people who are suffering right now with polluted water and warring factions fighting over resources we really don't need.