Meanwhile, a Report from Germany Suggests Wind Blows
AEman readers have to know they'll get the bad news with the good when it comes to new power tech. It ain't all roses, that's for sure, especially when theory meets reality in the wild.
This sobering account, paraphrased from the Solar Austin AE group on Yahoo.
Germany has more wind power installed than any other country; half of Europe's capacity. The report seems to be unusual in making available information wind companies usually don't make public, and in pointing out some of the problems they are encountering. It is not clear how typical their experience is, and whether Germany is an unusual case. The core finding, however, is that when capacity and load factors are considered, the amount of electricity generated by wind and fed into the grid, averaged over a year, was a mere 16% of capacity. For half the year it averaged 11%, meaning that for several months it must have been even lower.
One of the most important implications may be rate at which average windmill capacity factors may fall as we move from the very best sites where mills have been established so far, to less ideal sites. If wind is to be a much larger contributor to the overall power mix then lots of new sites will have to be developed. It is important to ask to what extent using sub-optimal sites will lower the total system's average capacity.
One emerging paradox seems to be that adding wind power to a mixed generation power system can actually increase the need for fossil fuelled plants. This is because 100% reliable power generation is needed to substitute for wind plant when the winds are down.
posted by Andy Bochman at 7:43 PM
 
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