I don't think you understand wind energy

The common complaints and attacks are: expensive, gov. handouts, unreliable.

The facts are these.  Every wind farm built is sold out for 20 or 30 years before the first tower arrives.  Utilities, and corporations are eager to sign up.  The newest wind turbines being installed are competitive in pricing, in Kansas the last two went on line in December were below all other forms of energy.  Wind mills are getting better at turning wind into watts, and operating at both lower and higher  speeds.  Even if the tax deductions (they are not technically subsidies but tax credits) are removed, they are still competitive within the mix of various sources (and all get subsidies/credits)  Unlike gas coal and nukes, the fuel is free. Therefore they offer decade long fixed price contracts.  This means the utility knows today what it will pay for wind for many years.  With coal or natural gas the price changes daily, up, down, over the years trending up, always up.

The utilities have never, unlike the public and politicians, thought of wind as a constant.   This is the main misconception, that it fails because on some days it idles.  If it ran more that would be better, but even as it is it fits their needs and pressures other sources to hold down prices.  Utilities are buying wind to smooth out their costs, moderate the peaks in price, wind is a price hedge.  The large traditional power plants can run anytime, all the time, but almost every year they cost more to run.  So here is how they manage it.  They contract for all the wind they can get, when they get it they turn down the boilers in the coal plant,  turn off the natural gas plant, bringing them back up when wind can't supply the load.  This multi-fuel sourced approach averages the cost lower.

Another reason utilities and large corporations snap up every new system that is offered, they want energy from wind and solar as a hedge against future regulations, pollution taxes, and public scorn.    Multi-national companies find they suffer in some markets for their carbon footprint in another, more and more when they shop for a new plant site clean energy sources are on the "must have" list.

Wind patterns@ 9:00est Feb18, 2013