“Having a reliable power system comes from a diverse portfolio of resourcesâ€, Michael Goggin, of the American Wind Energy Association, told Energy Refuge in the wake of the earthquake. “We’ve seen a number of examples in recent months. In Texas in February, it was extremely cold and it took offline a number of coal and gas power plants which caused regular blackouts. Wind power helped keep the lights on in a million housesâ€, he said.
What about floodings? “It depends where the project is built. Usually wind farms are built on fairly high points, so naturally it would tend to be pretty immune to floodings. Obviously a natural disaster is unpredictable and it can affect anything, but it would be pretty unlikely†Michael said.
If there one may lesson we can take from this week’s East Coast earthquake is that we need a diverse portfolio of resources and wind energy is part of that. “People have misconceptions that wind is not reliable and other sources of generation are always there. But we have seen in recent cases that is not necessarily the case; they weren’t there when the grid operator needed them most while in a number of incidents wind energy wasâ€, he added.
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Mr. Goggin comments that diversification of resources is necessary given the earthquake. Wind energy is hardly a dependable source of power. As for their contribution during the quake, there are no industrial scale wind turbines from Virginia to Florida.