A Windy story for a Windy Day.

Wind turbines have sprouted in North Dakota like giant sunflowers.  Even a hard core green energy person would have to admit they destroy the scenery.  The fossil fuel industry hates the damn things,  so the propaganda blows as strong as the wind is blowing today.

The right wing supporters of the coal industry always like to say wind power does not work.  One of their favorite arguments is that there is no way to store wind power.  Generally speaking there is no way to store any electrical power except with batteries,  but there is a way to store wind power the coal lobby just cannot admit.

In North Dakota on the Missouri River there is a huge dam.  The dam generates a very large amount of electricity.  Water runs through the turbines at the dam and produces hydro power.  The wonderful thing about hydro power is that it can be turned on and off very quickly. You do not have to heat up anything to get more water through the turbines.  On the other hand coal fired plants cannot rapidly change the amount of steam they put through their turbines.

What does this have to do with wind power.  It is pretty straight forward.  On a very windy day in North Dakota like you have right now, you can produce a lot of electricity from wind.  Wind does not create pollution.  Since you are producing electricity with wind you can throttle back the dam.  Guess what?  When you shut down the turbines powered by water at the dam,  the water backs up behind the dam.  Anyone who studied physics 101 knows this is stored power.  When the wind dies down you can release the water from behind the dam and produce electricity. The dam is serving as a giant battery.

The blows to shreds the favorite argument of the coal industry.  However, you will never get anyone to admit to this simple reality.  Instead the coal industry always says you have to have idle capacity of coal fired plants to backup the wind power.

One key to all of this is cooperation between the hydro power and the wind power.  There is none.  Why?  The two sources of power are not synchronize because of politics and stupidity.   Your toaster does not know where it is getting it's electricity.  Toast made with wind power taste just the same as coal fired toast.  However, a coal company does not get to sell as much coal on windy days, and when coal is not burnt CO2 is not produced, nitrous oxide is not put in the air, nor is mercury.  In the name of profit and greed the coal industry will fight and lie about wind power.  They will tell you it does not work.  Somehow it works in Europe, but not here.  In Europe high speed trains work, but not here. Special interest groups make sure the physics in the United States favor coal fired plants and slow trains.