Letter: Windmill improvements build renewable future

Ray Graham inferred that because there are nonworking windmills on an airport building, all windmills must be unreliable (“Windmills near airport show wind power perils,” Star-Advertiser, Letters, Oct. 30).

Just the opposite is true. Windmills have, over the years, increased in reliability. Better construction has resulted in thousands of windmills built and operating throughout the nation. Wind power is reliable and is one of the mainstays in renewable energy.

SMUD, the electric utility in Sacramento (where I worked for 26 years as an energy consultant), has installed a large wind farm in the California Delta. Energy produced by the windmills provides a good portion of the utility’s needs. Other utilities across the nation also have increased their renewable portfolios with wind.

Graham also said, “Generators powered by liquefied natural gas (LNG) would be much safer, cheaper, quieter and more reliable.” In a world that is fighting climate change and trying to wean itself from fossil fuels, building new gas plants is an anachronism.

Wind, solar, wave action and geothermal generation are the real way of the future.

Eileen Glaholt

Kaneohe

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