Every now and then I just like to stick this to the front of the posts.  Because you see, “Ontario is on the forefront of wind in Canada with almost 1,100 MW of installed capacity on the transmission grid.”  Check here often to see how actual performance measures up to installed capacity.

Here’s a handy reference for the population of cities and towns.

[clearspring_widget title=”IESO Wind Tracker” wid=”4ac1050a4df9ab7c” pid=”4b4c433919118ecf” width=”300″ height=”250″ domain=”cs8b.clearspring.com”]

Oh … think about this note from Jon Boone:

“You might explain a bit further what it’s all about.  The IESO continuously tries to sell the idea for wind by having little blurbs at the bottom of the graphic, such as the 101MW presently generated (out of 1100) can “meet the needs of Stratford” ( a provincial town).  This is absolutely bogus, since such a fluctuating energy source couldn’t meet the needs of a dog pound. It is outrageous propaganda.

You might note that, over the course of the year, the combined wind projects in Ontario, with an installed capacity of 1100MW, produce an annual average of 275MW–25% of its installed capacity. Over 60% of the time, they produce less than 275MW.  About 20% of the time, they produce virtually nothing, particularly at peak demand times.  Collectively, they never achieve their rated capacities.  Their output is continuously skittering–minute by minute, since any energy produced is a function of the cube of the wind speed.  As the wind energy ebbs and rises, it must be infilled–made whole–by conventional generation, which in this case, is almost entirely from hydro. Indeed, about 75% of Ontario’s installed wind capacity comes mostly from hydro.  This means that the wind energy displaces no CO2 emissions in Ontario’s electricity generation.“