Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – About 10% of the electricity generated in the US comes from wind installations. It isn’t nearly enough, either to fight the climate crisis or just to improve people’s health. It has now become clear that the people who get lung cancer but do not smoke are living near coal-fired power plants. Now a study has shown that “the health advantages of wind energy could more than quadruple if operators prioritized reducing the output of the dirtiest fossil fuel-based power plants when wind energy is available.”
Although public health and combating climate change are admirable goals, the bottom line often counts more. Thus, Allianz is finally closing a large coal-fired plant in Iowa, but the reason is that wind power in Iowa is just cheaper for consumers.
Still, there is some good news. Factories fueled by clean energy and the jobs that both create are changing the minds of some Republicans who had opposed green energy, as in Dalton, Georgia.
Via Pixabay. File.
Joshua Haiar at Argus reports that last year 52% of South Dakota’s electricity was produced by the state’s wind turbines. South Dakota has become an exporter of electricity to other states, since it produces twice as much electricity as its uses.. More electricity is now produced by wind than by hydroelectricity in the state.
Last month, Montana’s largest wind farm, with a nameplate capacity of 750 megawatts — nearly equal to a small nuclear power plant — went on line and began generating electricity for neighboring Washington State.
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