Overstating Cape Wind figures
IT'S SURPRISING that Donald MacGillis, who seems to know physics, repeats the misleading figure that the Cape Wind turbines will ''generate" 3.6 megawatts each (''The horizon in Denmark," editorial, June 14). Even Cape Wind's own home page makes a distinction between rated capacity and actual generation.
Yes, each turbine's ''rated capacity" may be 3.6 megawatts. But to generate that amount of electricity would require the turbine's running at full capacity. This would be rare, and then only for short periods (a previous editorial in the series mentioned that one drawback of wind turbines is that they often don't produce). Most wind turbines, like those in Denmark and Hull, are lucky if they generate only a percentage of their rated capacity over a year's period.
ROBERT SKOLE, Boston 