Believe it or not, those giant stinkin’ fans actually did run near full capacity, for a day, in Saskatchewan

Giant stinkin’ fan at Assiniboia.

What do you know? Some days the wind does actually blow in Saskatchewan. And not from politicians talking, either.

This is an exceptionally rare occurrence where the 617 megawatts of wind power generation in Saskatchewan actually put out somewhere close to nameplate capacity. Who’d thunk it?

13 Replies to “Believe it or not, those giant stinkin’ fans actually did run near full capacity, for a day, in Saskatchewan”

  1. No serious person has ever doubted the ability of windmills to generate significant power. It’s actually a great way to generate electricity in the extremely rare locations on earth that have constant wind all the time. The problem with windmills and solar is that they are not consistent. Their power output is not dispatchable. They cannot be ramped up and down like a natural gas turbine can. Nor can they provide the. guaranteed long-term stable load that nuclear or hydro can.

    If it was possible to store power at grid scale then wind/solar would make a lot more sense. But it isn’t possible, and there’s no feasible technology to do so on the horizon.

    If the elites continue to push “renewables” it will mean a drastic reduction in our standard of living. We’ll have permanent, regular blackouts and brownouts, just like they do in the Congo.

    1. How many politicians and bureaucrats covered their ears and screamed lah, lah, lah when you explained that fact to them?

  2. I’d be more interested in electricity when it’s -30 C for two weeks at a time.

    What will the gang greens do?

    Answer, not a problem, the gang greens live in coastal BC or California where it’s warmer.

  3. Having wind generation is like having a car that only works 20% of the time. Totally useless.

    That may be why I’m hearing rumors that saskpower is planning on building another 300mw natgas plant. Saskpower will need more natgas or nuclear baseload power to replace the coal fired plants. Natgas plants are,of course, quicker and cheaper to build.

    1. I’m hoping that was just a typo, because a 300 milliwatt plant should fit into the palm of your hand…

      The downside to “peaker” natural gas plants is they aren’t so great for efficiency, but they are pretty quick to build as long as you can get the lawsuits out of the way.

      1. I was too lazy to capitalize the MW.

        I assume it will be a combined cycle baseload natgas plant like QEPS, Chinook and Great Plains. There is smaller peaking plants at various natgas compressor stations around the province. Saskatchewan has lots of natgas in the province. A natural successor to coal.

        As far as I know there hasn’t been lawsuits associated with the natgas plants saskpower has been building but it’s not something I follow so I could be wrong.

  4. The day Bird Blenders produced at full capacity? In 60 years everyone will be telling tall tales to the grandkids about the fall of 2022 when the Eagle Shredders worked as advertised.

  5. So, what’s the thrust here? The taxpayer subsidized bird & bat choppers function as designed for a single day of the year & that somehow justifies their existence? Helluva business plan.

    I wonder how many avian lives were snuffed out during that period. Hopefully, with the cold weather upon us, the chiroptera had already migrated south.

  6. A whole day, and the hundreds of millions spent were well worth it, right, right? Did someone use a toaster?

  7. “The day Bird Blenders produced at full capacity?”

    Yeh, but they had to close the Trans-Can in order for it to happen. Can’t have one without the other, ya know.
    They’re a matched set, like diesel and gasoline, you have wind all day and closed highways. Snow and black ice are purely optional.

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