How's that wind power working out for you?

I can't think of a more ardent supporter of wind power than T. Boone Pickens. He has championed the construction of the world's largest wind farm, to be located in the Texas Panhandle. As part of this project, he contracted to purchase 678 giant wind turbines -- which can stand taller than most 30 story buildings -- and he leased about 200,000 acres in Texas for his proposed site. He even paid for television commercials touting his project. Yesterday, he announced he is abandoning the project, at least in its current form.

Why? It turns out it is uneconomical to transmit power from the proposed site to a distribution system. Mr. Pickens referred to "technical" problems, but transmission systems are almost as old as electrical power itself. It is far more likely that the ambitious project turned out to be uneconomical. Apparently, Mr. Pickens's faith in new sources of alternative energy blinded him to the economic realities.

But then, there is nothing new about wind power. Don Quixote tilted at windmills in a book that was first published in 1604. Wind power is older than commercial electricity itself. To be sure, modern wind turbines bear scant resemblance to those 16th-century windmills. But that is because the technology has been continuously improved over the intervening centuries. One has to wonder how much additional efficiency can be wrung out of this centuries-old power source.

The ineluctable facts are that the winds do not blow 24/7, and they often blow most strongly in remote places like the Texas Panhandle, far from potential consumers. Apparently, even Mr. Pickens's formidable resources could not overcome those facts