One can hardly fail to notice that California is experiencing an energy crisis after decades of embracing, supporting, and subsidizing windmills. Their present dilemma is rooted in the delusion that piddle-power sources could provide electricity for their burgeoning economy. Wind has its uses, but providing steady power is not one of them. If the wind speed doubles from 10 mph to 20 mph, suddenly there is eight times as much power available. These rules are due to the air itself, and have nothing whatsoever to do with windmill design.
Wind turbines produce the lowest-quality electricity on the planet.
Suppose a wind turbine is designed to tolerate 30-mph winds. The power it could produce under these maximum-wind conditions is called the nameplate power, or its capacity. Not a chance. Most of the time, the windmills would produce very little power, and, of course, when there's no wind, there's no power at all. In short, windmills do not allow any other power plants to be taken out of service.