It’s Free, Plentiful and Fickle
Article in series Energy Challenge: No Perfect Solution focuses on wind power; says wind, almost everybody's best hope for big supplies of clean, affordable electricity, is turning out to have complications; holds engineers have cut price of electricity derived from wind by about 80 percent in last 20 years, setting up renewable technology for major share of electricity market; holds big problem with wind is that it is unpredictable and often fails to blow when electricity is most needed; says wind is not reliable enough to assure supplies for electric grid that must be prepared to deliver power to everybody who wants it--even when it is in greatest demand; holds in Texas, as in many other parts of country, power companies are scrambling to build generating stations to meet growing peak demands; Xcel Energy, which serves eight states from North Dakota to Texas and says it is nation's largest retailer of wind energy, is eager to have more; photos (L)
