Another reader chimes in on wind:

The original reader’s “defense” of wind is a perfect example of the kind of mind-boggling illogic that drives real engineers nuts.
For example, the reader says “nuclear and hydro and coal also have downtime.” That’s nonsensical. Plants running those fuels have PREDICTABLE, SCHEDULED downtime, maybe once or twice a year at most — perfect for a nice, stable electrical grid. Wind, on the other hand, has totally unpredictable and frequent downtimes. The wind gusts, and dies, every day. This makes wind power almost completely usesless for the power grid.
The smart energy engineers I talk to — the people who actually spend their days delivering real power and avoiding blackouts — consider wind power and solar power to be almost useless, a joke. They throw away almost all the wind power they are forced to buy; they can’t use it because it comes in jolts and spurts, which the electrical distributing grids are technologically unable to use. Rebuild the grid? Sure, got a trillion dollars?
Wind and solar are the ultimate example of “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” They simply aren’t real, and nobody wants to admit it.

Let’s just say for the sake of argument that we could develop environmentally friendly accumulators to efficiently store wind power, to be released to the grid when and as needed. [Perfect name: Aeolus ™. Add a little bronze detailing, and the branding is complete.] But how far away are we from their development? I trust Planet Gore denizens will weigh in on the prospects of this happening anytime soon.