“Eighty percent of Ontario’s generation of electricity from wind power occurs at times and seasons so far out of phase with demand that the entire output is surplus and is exported at a substantial loss,” the study from the conservative think-tank says. “The Auditor-General of Ontario estimates that the province has already lost close to $2-billion on such exports.”
Further, the shift to wind, where facilities tend to be placed in rural and remote locations, has required millions of dollars in investment just to tie the new projects to the transmission grid. All of that goes toward the increase in electricity rates.
And because wind is unreliable, it can’t really replace coal as an energy source. “[seven megawatts] of rated wind energy are needed to provide a year-round replacement of 1MW of conventional power generating capacity,” the study says.
