I’ve been reading in theUK’s Daily Telegraph newspaper in the last couple of days about the troublesome position the UK’s wind turbines are in. As well as being noisy and (according to some) ugly, there are big problems with managing their power output. Apparently, the average wind turbine is shut down for about 25 days each year because it is too windy. The problem is not that the turbines are in danger of damage – it’s because supply of electricity outstrips demand. On a windy summer night the generating capacity of the turbines can exceed the consumption of power.
Ideally, this extra energy would be stored and then released when it was required, but there is very limited potential for doing this. This is one of the major issues holding back some of the greener forms of power generation. For example, with solar power, there is great generation potential during the middle of a sunny summer day, but, in many countries, the power consumption is going to peak on a cold winter evening. How do we keep hold of that energy in the meantime? On a small-scale it can be done with batteries, fuel cells,supercapacitors, etc., on a larger scale withpump-storage hydro-electric schemes, but on the kind of scale needed to exploit renewable energy fully, we are lacking cost-effective options. In the meantime, the turbines need to be turned off so they don’t overload the grid on windy summer nights.
Then there’s also the issue of justhow much greenhouse gas is produced during the construction of a wind turbine, but that’s another story.
Mark says:
This could be an interesting development which could become viable provided the plant works as hoped:
http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2078663/beacon-power-spins-worlds-largest-flywheel-plant
With vacuum/magnet flywheel mechanism they claim 85% efficiency:
http://www.beaconpower.com/files/Flywheel_FR-Fact-Sheet.pdf
Thomas Everth says:
Hi Marcus!
Reg. Wind energy anything that the right wing rag Daily Telegraph posts (its the Telegraph that has columnists like Delringpole and sports articles by the likes Lord Moncton from time to time….) must be read with great caution indeed!
Reg. Wind energy: The solution is a smart grid that allows consumers to automatically adapt variable load requirements such as deep freezers, hot water cylinders, storage heater and others to the natural rhythm of energy being available, plus exciting new developments in the area of flow cell battery technologies which allowed a significant reduction in fossil fuel use.
http://www.hydro.com.au/system/files/documents/King_Island_Renewable_Energy_PK_2008.pdf
Best!
Thomas
Marcus Wilson says:
Sorry for getting your comment up on the site so late – the spam filter ‘spammed’ it.