Wind Energy- a viable alternative to fossil fuels now?

[Cobretti2]

drkohler said:

SvennoJ said:
I wonder if we could have a fusion plant up and running already if all the money spend on wind turbines had been poured into fusion research.

You got that backwards. If all the money that was wasted on fusion generators had been invested in other things (like tidal power plants etc), we would have no need for this discussion.

Also the problem of solar/iwind energy production is not the production, it is the (large scale) distribution of the energy. Occasionally, wind energy producers in Europe have TO PAY per kWh to get their energy into the European grid (the grid is not strong enough yet, and storage options are limited currently).

In Australia you get paid the net energy generated into the grid.

Where I live we get paid the same rate you are charged for using the electricity from the grid. So like 27cents per kWh.

 However new installations (or new customers moving to a house with solar on it) will only get 8cents per kWh as the national solar scheme has ended.