Wind Energy Reasons to Pause

I am very frustrated with the New York Climate Leadership & Community Protection Act (Climate Act) net zero transition because the reality is that there are so many issues coming up with the schedule and ambition of the Climate Act that it is obvious that we need to pause implementation and figure out how best to proceed.  This article describes reasons to pause implementation associated with wind energy deployment.

I am convinced that implementation of the Climate Act net-zero mandates will do more harm than good because the proposed green energy programs are crimes against physics.  The energy density of wind and solar energy is too low and the resource intermittency too variable to ever support a reliable electric system relying on those resources. I have followed the Climate Act since it was first proposed, submitted comments on the Climate Act implementation plan, and have written over 500 articles about New York’s net-zero transition.  The opinions expressed in this article do not reflect the position of any of my previous employers or any other organization I have been associated with, these comments are mine alone.

Overview

The Climate Act established a New York “Net Zero” target (85% reduction in GHG emissions and 15% offset of emissions) by 2050.  It includes an interim reduction target of a 40% GHG reduction by 2030. The Climate Action Council (CAC) was responsible for preparing the Scoping Plan that outlined how to “achieve the State’s bold clean energy and climate agenda.”  After a year-long review, the Scoping Plan was finalized at the end of 2022.  Since then, the State has been trying to implement the Scoping Plan recommendations through regulations, proceedings, and legislation. 

The Scoping Plan Strategic Use of Low-Carbon Fuels scenario projects that 13,096 MW of onshore wind and 13,484 MW of offshore wind will be needed for the electric system to be “zero emissions” in 2040.  If the onshore wind turbines are like the Alle-Catt 340 MW project that has 117 turbines, then each turbine will be 2.9 MW and 4,516 turbines will be needed.  If the offshore wind turbines are similar to the Empire Wind project that proposes 15 MW turbines then  899 offshore turbines will be needed.

This post describes problems with wind energy in recent articles.

Wind Curtailment

Parker Gallant keeps track of wind energy production in Ontario and the problem of what to do with excess wind energy when the production from Ontario exceeds the load.  The current strategy is to dump the excess power into Quebec, New York, and Michigan at a low price which has short-term consumer benefits to those jurisdictions.  However, Gallant has documented that through 4/20/25 dumping the excess wind and solar energy has cost Ontario taxpayers and ratepayers $64 million.  On April 21 the total bill was another $12,3 million.  On April 26, the total for the month had reached $101 million which is about $20 per Ontario household.

He explains what happened on April 21:

Even though our Peak Hour was a little bit higher reaching 16,250 MW at Hour 20 we still didn’t need what the IWT and solar were generating so IESO were selling it for deep discounts to our neighbours as the average HOEP (hourly Ontario energy price) was a piddly $17.80/MWh (1.8 cents/kwh). IESO had forecast those IWT would generate 88,811 MW (75.5% of capacity) but only accepted 81,846 MW meaning they curtailed 7,000 MW which we paid for. Solar generation was small (not much sun) and generated only 1,326 MW! IESO’s intertie data indicates they sold 89,574 MW to our neighbours which means we Ontario ratepayers and taxpayers ate $12.3 million of their respective costs along with a few dollars for the other exported power which probably was baseload nuclear and hydro!

This is another reason to pause the implementation because in 2040 when there are over 5400 wind turbines running, we will have the same problem.  I must believe that the problem will get worse for Ontario because they at least got paid something but, in the future, when our turbines are producing too much we will not be a market so they will just have to eat the curtailment costs.  When our neighbors install their turbines, then we will have to eat our costs too.  How is this supposed to work for New York ratepayers?

European Experience

Tallbloke’s Talkshop poses the renewables question whether “endless subsidies for a so-called ‘energy transition’ are affordable for those forced to cover the costs, especially when the things being subsidised are creating daily problems for electricity supply and grid stability due to the erratic nature of the technology?  He describes an article in the Europe section of an OilPrice.com opinion piece that addresses the question.

Certainly, there are plenty of industries that rely on state subsidies, but how many of these, it’s worth asking, rely on these subsidies for their very survival?

The answer is inconvenient for the transition lobby. These are the only industries that literally cannot survive without massive and consistent state financial support. And that essentially makes them unviable in a natural market environment.

For recent proof, look no further than Europe. There is no anti-transition government in Europe. There is no Trump or anything like him at the helm of any European country. And yet it was in Europe that the chief executive of Danish Ørsted insisted that the government step up their financial support for the offshore wind industry to ensure its survival.

As reported by the Financial Times, which spoke to Rasmus Erbroe, “European capitals to commit to consistent annual support for the industry in order to meet offshore wind targets and help reverse rising costs.”

“If you want to deliver on energy security, energy independence, affordability for Europe for the coming decades and meet the targets, then we need to make this change,” the executive said, quite likely believing every word that came out of his mouth was the holy truth. In fact, there is nothing affordable about an energy that cannot absorb its own costs and turn in a profit without government guarantees of that profit.

Surely the question whether wind energy can ever turn a profit without government guarantees of that profit is a valid question that needs to be addressed before New York squanders more money on this technology.

Wake Physics

I described the Scoping Plan projections for wind energy earlier in this article.  Those are underestimates because the projections for the expected annual output are too optimistic.  In other words, if reasonable estimates were used then even more wind turbines would be needed.  Pierre Gosselin describes another nuance that could affect the number of turbines needed.  Klimanachrichten explains that wakes from upwind turbines reduces the output of downwind turbines.  He notes:

The expansion of offshore wind energy in the North Sea is a central component of the European energy transition. However, two of the biggest players in the industry are now warning of negative effects: Ørsted and Equinor have jointly calculated that the planned 1.5 gigawatt wind farm ‘Outer Dowsing’ could cause significant so-called wake losses. These are yield losses that occur when the wind is weakened by upstream wind farms, causing downstream turbines to produce less electricity.

This might be included in the Scoping Plan, but the documentation is so poor that it is impossible to know.  If I had to bet then I would bet the ranch that this nuance is not included.

Ultimate Problem

Regular readers of this blog are undoubtedly tired of me constantly whining about the insurmountable challenges associated with extended periods of extended periods of light winds.  Chris Morrison describes notes that in the first quarter of 2025 “low levels of renewable generation and high demand drove gas-fired power production to its highest level since 2021”.  He continues:

But this gas rescue act came at a large cost since Britain’s increasingly unstable electricity supply, which provides some of the highest prices in the world, showed wild cost swings in windless days in January. On at least two freezing winter days, wind production was more-or-less zero. Not untypical winter weather conditions also saw the sun fail to shine for a number of consecutive days. Some periods saw the wholesale peak-time electricity price top £160 per megawatt hour ((MWh). On January 8th, when winter high pressure stopped the wind blowing across the UK, the wholesale price soared to £300 MWh, while the sophisticated clearing price needed to balance the non-storable supply with instant demand soared to £2,900 MWh.

Rafe Champion agrees with my concern.  He recently wrote:

The wind and solar system is vulnerable to wind droughts. It is not entirely fanciful to plan a book titled How Wind Droughts Almost Destroyed Civilisation based on these articles: The late discovery of wind droughts, We have to talk about wind droughts, and The “wind drought trap.”

The Scoping Plan analyses were not sophisticated enough to incorporate these costs into their projections.  So this massive problem was downplayed by the Climate Action Council.

Killing Eagles

I recently received an email about a seminar addressing bird kills associated with wind turbines.  Proponents argue that wind turbines kill only “a fraction as many as are killed by house cats, buildings, or even the fossil fuel operations that wind farms replace.”  Of course, when asked about raptor kills there is no response.  David Wojick continues his great coverage of the impacts of wind turbines on eagles with a post about eagle kill offset rules.    He explains the problem:

Every operating wind power facility has a US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) permit to kill eagles on an ongoing basis and many do kill eagles. Each permit depends on eagle-kill offset rules which appear to be false. If so then the killing is illegal, a violation of the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act.

The eagle kill offset rules are not protecting eagles.  This is another unacknowledged issue in the Scoping Plan.

Accountability for Wind Farms in France

There was an encouraging article.  A court in France took action when an eagle was killed:

The recent shutdown of the Bernagues wind farm in Hérault, France, marks a long-overdue reckoning with the lethal impacts of wind energy on wildlife—particularly raptors like the golden eagle. On April 9, 2025, a French court ordered the entire site to cease operations for one year following the confirmed death of a golden eagle, a protected species, that collided with one of the farm’s turbine blades in January 2023. The decision also slapped Energie Renouvelable du Languedoc (ERL), the farm’s operator, with a €200,000 fine, half of which was suspended, and imposed an additional €40,000 fine on the company’s director.

I don’t think that it is very likely that a New York judge would take such an action.  Nor do I expect that the Department of Environmental Conservation to step up until it has become obvious that 5,000 wind turbines could destroy the comeback of the Bald Eagle in New York State and by then it would probably be too late.

Breaking the Law in the US

Unfortunately in the United States the Federal government has been charging ahead with offshore wind development and it is not clear that they are following the law. 

The Save the Right Whales Coalition has joined legal challenges to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s (BOEM) approval of the Vineyard Wind 1 project and ten other offshore wind facilities. In a newly filed amicus brief, SRWC argues that BOEM broke federal law by rewriting statutory language, bypassing public rulemaking, and using compensation to justify harm — all to advance offshore wind at any cost.

Despite the offshore wind advocates arguments that the massive development of offshore wind will not affect the endangered Right Whale, I believe that it will.  There are just too many potential impacts that will accumulate and overwhelm the few whales left.

Conclusion

Evidence continues to mount that issues associated with every component of the Climate Act transition plan are so great that a pause to re-assess the plan is necessary.  New York Public Service Law  § 66-p (4). “Establishment of a renewable energy program” includes safety valve conditions for affordability and reliability that are directly related to wind energy deployment.  The failure of the Hochul Administration to establish criteria for those safety vales and provide public tracking of the status must be corrected before implementation proceeds.