Trump's Vengeance Knows No Bounds And His Latest Target Is The Wind

Trump was howling at the wind all week. He hates the wind. The wind has been attacking that thing on top of his head for decades and he's been battling it near his golf resort in Scotland for many years. On Wednesday he launched a salvo against wind from the safety of Sean Hannity's Fox show, calling it an unreliable energy source because it "only blows sometimes." And on Thursday, the wind was one of his many enemies to eviscerate during his standup comedy routine during his Grand Rapids, Michigan hate rally, telling an audienceful of morons that they would experience power outages when the wind doesn't blow. "If it doesn't blow, you can forget about television for that night. I know a lot about wind." He doesn't know anything about the wind except what it does to his weave.

Sure, California may have the largest single wind farm in America (at the Alta Wind Energy Center at the Tehachapi Pass in Kern County, generating enough electricity to power 450,000 homes in Kevin McCarthy's district) but the state that generates the most electricity from wind (15% of the state's capacity) is Texas. And the state generating the highest percentage of energy from wind power is Iowa. North Dakota, another Trump-lovin' state, has the most per capita wind generation in the U.S. Of the 10 biggest wind farms in America 4 are in Texas and one's in Indiana, Trump states. Fourteen states now have 10% or more of their generation coming from wind power. Most of these Trump states. These are the states where wind is keeping the most lights and TVs on: Iowa (36.6%), South Dakota (30.3%), Kansas (29.6%), Oklahoma (25.1%), North Dakota (21.5), Minnesota, Nebraska, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Maine, Vermont, Oregon and Idaho. The 5 states with the most wind capacity installed by early 2017 were:

• Texas- 20,321 MW
• Iowa- 6,917 MW
• Oklahoma- 6,645 MW
• California- 5,662 MW
• Kansas- 4,452 MW

So where were Senators Cornyn, Cruz, Grassley, Ernst, Inhofe, Lankford, Roberts and Moran, all Republicans, when Trump was mouthing off about what an ineffective waste developing wind energy is? Why weren't they defending their own states' immense wind energy investments and industries?

Not even counting Alaska and Hawaii, which have immense potential for wind power electricity generation, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, estimates the contiguous United States has the potential for onshore wind generation that is nine times larger than current total U.S. electricity consumption. Offshore potential is almost half that again!

Trump should read his own Department of Energy's Frequently Asked Questions. He might have found out a lot about wind energy before he made a fool of himself all week berating it:

• What Is Wind Energy?

Wind energy (or wind power) refers to the process by which wind turbines convert the movement of wind into electricity. Winds are caused by the uneven heating of the atmosphere by the sun, the irregularities of the earth's surface, and rotation of the earth. Humans use this wind flow for many purposes: sailing boats, pumping water, and also generating electricity. Wind turbines convert the kinetic energy of the moving wind into electricity.

• What Happens To The Electricity Supply When The Wind Isn't Blowing? Does Wind Need To Be "Backed Up" By Other Sources Of Power Generation?

The U.S. power grid consists of a huge number of interconnected transmission lines that connect a variety of generation sources to loads. The wind does not always blow and the sun doesn't always shine, which creates additional variability (due to the changing output of wind and solar) and uncertainty (due to the inability to perfectly forecast wind or solar output).

But power grid operators have always had to deal with variability. Other forms of power generation, including traditional thermal generation, can unexpectedly trip off-line without notice; all forms of power generation may sometimes not operate when called upon. There is also uncertainty inherent in the system due to ever-changing load (energy demand) that cannot be predicted perfectly, which power grid operators have always had to manage.

Grid operators use the interconnected power system to access other forms of generation when contingencies occur and continually turn generators on and off when needed to meet the overall grid demand.

Adding variable renewable power to the grid does not inherently change how this process of balancing electricity supply and demand works. Studies have shown that the grid can accommodate large penetrations of variable renewable power without sacrificing reliability, and without the need for "backup" generation.

• Where Are Wind Turbines Manufactured?

Most of the components of wind turbines installed in the United States are manufactured here. There are 500 wind-related manufacturing facilities located across 41 states, and the U.S. wind industry currently employs more than 101,000 people.

• Where Are Wind Farms Located?

There are utility-scale wind farms in 41 U.S. states and distributed wind deployed in all 50 states, Washington DC, Puerto Rico, and Guam... Globally, the United States ranks second in both installed capacity and electricity generation from wind, behind China. Denmark, Portugal, and Ireland each get more than 20% of their nations’ electricity from wind.

• How Much Energy Comes From Wind In The U.S.?

Wind power supplies about 6% of total U.S. electricity generation with an installed capacity of over 80 gigawatts. That’s enough to power 24 million homes. Wind supplies more than 30% of electricity in Iowa and South Dakota, and more than 10% in twelve other states.

• Is Wind More Expensive Than Other Forms Of Energy?

The average levelized cost of wind power purchase agreements signed in recent years has been 2–3 cents per kilowatt hour, depending on the wind resource and the project’s financing. Because the electricity from wind farms is sold at a fixed price over a long period of time (e.g. 20 years) and its fuel is free, wind energy mitigates the price uncertainty that fuel costs add to traditional sources of energy.

In windy areas like the Midwestern United States, wind energy is cost-competitive with building a new natural gas fired power plant, and continued research and development could cut the cost of wind energy in half by 2030, bringing the unsubsidized cost of wind energy below the projected cost of fuel for existing natural gas plants. Wind projects compare favorably with other forms of energy through 2040.