The problem with wind is storing the energy. I live in the Pacific NW and when you drive through the Columbia Gorge you see hundreds of these windmills. I have have visited the Wild Horse Wind facilities and they store energy using batteries -- terrible. The dams below can back up water, but wind blows whenever is may. The dams also provide safety from flood, a waterway, recreation, ... windmills just pollute the sky, kill song birds, and can not produce energy on demand nor store it effectively. Talk to engineers for Bonneville and they mock the windmills.
If they are going to use wind why not pump water up from the Columbia River up to the top of the surrounding hills? Use the potential energy at least.
Are you actually complaining that wind is bad because it ruins the view?
Windows, cars, and pet cats kill multitudes more birds than windmills
Hydro plants do use wind to bank energy. Either by shutting down and banking water when the wind is blowing, or even running the pumps in reverse.
I agree with you that energy storage is a big problem with wind. It is with solar too. But we can get near 50% wind and solar before it becomes a problem since much more energy is used during the day.
Dams also have a finite lifetime, something nobody really talks about. They silt up over 50-100 years until they're completely full. This is a bigger problem in places like China with turbid water but happens everywhere eventually. The sun will shine and wind will blown till long after we're gone but dam sites will be gone eventually.
You misunderstand the impact of the dams on the ecosystem. Salmon are hanging by a thread in the Columbia, and only a very aggressive hatchery program has kept them from collapse.
Essentially all buildable sites have already been built, and there's a growing awareness some existing damns need to come down. The Gorge is not some great untapped resource for pumped storage that people were too distracted by wind power to discover.
I'm friends with an environmental economist that did the analysis while working for the state of Oregon. He also was involved in the reports that shut down Boardman. The information is accurate.
If they are going to use wind why not pump water up from the Columbia River up to the top of the surrounding hills? Use the potential energy at least.