The Canadian government spent a great deal of effort and money in touting their alternative energy initiatives, particularly electricity generating through wind turbines. Lots and lots of tax dollars have been spent on various projects. These weren’t depicted as public work projects, but as “investments”.
The day before yesterday, they quietly reversed that policy.
Gee, I wonder why!
Looks like the “investments” didn’t pay off.
—- UPDATE —-
I was just informed that it was the Ontario government, controlled by the Liberals, who are the culprits behind funding for the wind power projects that are being dropped. Not the entire Canadian government!
My bad about that, and a thanks to the reader who took the time to let me know that I was off base!
Pasting the text of one comment left on the original post of this article….
That just proves Canada isn’t capable of developing new technologies and
making them profitable. Denmark created a profitable wind power
industry, one that employs 20,000 people and brings the economy 3
billion euros. Plus it provides about 25% of their total generation
capacity. They pay a bit more for power but at least they are getting
away from dirty coal and oil and nuclear energy that produces wastes
that will still be toxic 100,000 years after we’re all dead.
What a specious load of tripe. I’ll bet the subsidies hidden in the operation of this Danish enterprise bring the total cost of it higher than the return. Secondly, Denmark has 5.5 million people, 2/3 of whom are adults, so 20,000 people out of 3.6 million people are employed in this enterprise somehow – where does the money come from to pay them?
The biggest question of all, though, for me is if 25% of the Danish electricity is coming from wind power, 75% of it isn’t. Where does the rest of it come from? I’ll wager from the very sources the respondent denigrates so readily…and they pay more for it than if the windpower enterprise wasn’t in place.
As with any other government boondoggle, the truth has to be stretched beyond natural limits to make these numbers work. I smell a hockey-stick graph somewhere around here!
Frank A.,
The snippet is true as far as it goes but it lies by omission. It is true that 25% of the power generated in Denmark comes from windpower. What it leaves out is that Denmark generates only about a third of the power it actually consumes. The grid of which Denmark is a part extends across a big chunk of northern Europe. Most of the power in that grid comes from nuclear and gas.
Moreover, the 25% of power generated is just notional. Owing to its inherently intermittent nature, windpower can’t actually supply power to the grid in the same way a fossil fuel or nuclear plant can.
Figures do not lie but liars and govt. bureaucrats can figure.Wind has a place in scheme of things but is no more than a niche.
It’s to Canada’s benefit that the prime minister is an economist. A real one, mind you, not one of those pretenders that staff the White House, and, evidently, the Federal Reserve.