Re: Wind Power

From: Don Lancaster (don_at_tinaja.com)
Date: 08/31/04 

Date: Tue, 31 Aug 2004 11:44:12 -0700

Dan Bloomquist wrote:
>
> brianb wrote:
> >
> > Denmark is part of a large grid, so they can shunt excess power over
> > when the wind is blowing hard and buy power needed when it isn't. If
> > every country in Europe had 20%, then you'd see problems of
> > intermittency.
> >
> > Also, I thought I read that wind instability (as opposed to
> > intermittency) destabalized the grid when it was a high proportion of
> > power. IE wind gusts throughout the day which are unplanned can knock
> > the grid down. Anyone have any insight?
>
> Wind production can be cut back just like any other generation system.
> http://www.bwea.com/ref/stop.html
>
> >
> > Obviously using a small location (like Denmark) where you're really
> > just one small part of a grid, you wouldn't see these problems. But
> > saying that it could be 20% of the US is misleading if the above is
> > the case.
>
> According to the above article, 10 to 15% does not present a problem
> with current grid systems. It would be at least 15 years before the U.S.
> saw penetration like this. By that time, it may be equitable to to
> deploy contingency in the form of more pumped storage. Pumped storage is
> already used to make coal and nuclear more equitable.
>
> >
> > Also how do you get wind from the "Saudi Arabia of wind", the
> > mid-West, to NYC or the east coast? I don't think power can be
> > shipped that far.
>
> Energy travels 800 miles on the western grid. And this is an old,
> bottle-necked, inefficient system. It depends on the additional cost of
> HVDC or super conducting transmission. It may be that wind will have to
> see a lower cost of production before distant sources are equitable.
>
> >
> > I'm sure wind can be used *more* but I'm not sure it can ever be a
> > large % of total grid power.
>
> The most spoken number is 20% without modification to the system. I'm
> sure there will be more information on this.
>
> Google: wind study grid load percentage
> Turned up stuff like this:
> http://www.indecol.ntnu.no/indecolwebnew/publications/articles/e1/ie-a-259ole-vogstad.pdf
>
> Best, Dan.
>
> --
> http://lakeweb.net
> http://ReserveAnalyst.com
> No EXTRA stuff for email.

The fundamental problem with wind power is that it can never meet more
than the tiniest fraction of total energy demand. It is thus a niche app
and will forever remain so.

http://www.tinaja.com/glib/energfun.pdf 

-- 
Many thanks,
Don Lancaster
Synergetics   3860 West First Street  Box 809  Thatcher, AZ 85552
voice: (928)428-4073 email: don@tinaja.com   
Please visit my GURU's LAIR web site at http://www.tinaja.com

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