Wind power and the grid

It has long been known that wind power only makes money from the Federal subsidies. The return on investment would not work otherwise. Looks like the same thing is happening in England. From the UK Telegraph:

Firms paid to shut down wind farms when the wind is blowing
Energy firms will receive thousands of pounds a day per wind farm to turn off their turbines because the National Grid cannot use the power they are producing.

Critics of wind farms have seized on the revelation as evidence of the unsuitability of turbines to meet the UK's energy needs in the future. They claim that the 'intermittent' nature of wind makes such farms unreliable providers of electricity.

There is no way to store the energy and the proposed "smart grid" is just the same old power grid with some monitoring instrumentation added. No paradigms being shifted here. You are not going to get rid of coal or gas power plants as you need to maintain baseline generating capacity and if the wind suddenly dies down, you need a source that can ramp up quickly to fill the gap. Wind is just not reliable for baseline generation. Fine for charging a battery at someone's remote cottage. Not fine for serious commercial power. A tip 'o the hat to Robert Mendick writing at Watts Up With That for the link...