Columbia Gorge Wind Farm: The Columbian JUDITH GAP, MT--Every time I drive to Bozeman, I pass through a wind farm in the Columbia Gorge. I love watching them, especially when two sync up rotations, but there are always at least a handful that refuse to move. When we visited Judith Wind Energy, I counted exactly six moving. That day, they were producing exactly zero megawatts.
This is the obvious problem with wind energy. Sometimes, there isn’t any wind, just like with solar power there sometimes isn’t any sun. Wind energy is a gamble that way. Sure, it’s clean and renewable energy, but it isn’t always there. Fossil fuels, while nonrenewable and bad for the environment, have the benefit of being reliable. Coal won’t just disappear for a day and then come back another. It will produce power as long as there is coal to burn, and that’s a point in coal’s favor. The unreliable nature of wind also plays a part in the issue of cost. While renewables are on track to be cheaper than coal by 2020, a wind farm itself might not be active enough to stay competitive with conventional energy, or even other renewables. I personally love the advantages wind offers as a clean energy source, and that the land around wind farms can still be productive, but I don’t think it’s realistic to expect wind to ever be a large part of our collective energy portfolio, or completely line the Columbia Gorge and make my drive to college that much more interesting. -Delaney
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