Discussion on:

Japan dials up wind energy

If I were making and selling devices that consume electricity -- and raking in a fortune on them -- I would use that money to produce the energy they use, thereby doubling up on my profits. And producing that enrgy with renewables (wind, solar, etc.) makes even more sense. It's an obvious decision that has so-far escaped the notice of the high-tech heads...which makes one wonder just exactly where their heads have been. (Looking for more ways to spend their mega cash on toys for themselves perhaps?)

A 1GW wind installation will typically provide as much power as a 300 MW nuclear installation. Further, wind provides power when the wind blows hard - not when you want it. The statement that "At a gigawatt, the 500-turbine wind farm would about equal the size of a conventional nuclear reactor." would be more accurately stated as "At a gigawatt peak capacity, the 500-turbine wind farm would produce about 1/3 as much power as a conventional nuclear reactor but less conveniently." The fact that the power contributed by wind varies so dramatically is a serious problem to wind providing a substantial fraction of the grid power.