Edmund Storms wrote:
And thus we see the basic flaw in wind generation. Unless a backup
source of power is in place and can be connected to an active grid,
wind power is not practical.
This is incorrect. EPRI and European power companies that have a lot
experience with wind power say that most present-day distribution
systems can accommodate up to 20% wind power with little or no
additional equipment. They say fluctuations in demand are a much
bigger problem than fluctuations in output from wind. Over a large
geographic area, wind output is highly predictable, even several days
in advance, so it can be planned for.
Also, it degrades slowly and in small increments compared to other
power sources. In some ways wind is more predictable and stable than
other sources. When something goes wrong with a coal or gas fired
plant, a large chunk of capacity goes off line immediately and in an
unplanned manner. When a nuclear power plant SCRAMs you can lose half
the power in the state. In contrast, if the wind is not quite as
strong as predicted, the difference is minor. If there is very little
wind, they know about it hours or days in advance and they can plan for it.
Having said that, Terry is quite right that putting 4 GW of wind
power in one place would be an engineering nightmare. Putting 4 GW of
nuclear power in one place would be an economic nightmare. Nukes are
only good for baseline, 24-hour electricity. As far as I know, the
only place with such concentrated power is in Japan, where the whole
country is in a tight grid so they can distribute that much power.
The biggest in the world is Kashiwazaki-kariwa, 8 GW, owned by Tokyo
Electric Power, which is smack in the middle of nowhere in Niigata,
far from Tokyo:
http://www2.jnes.go.jp/atom-db/en/general/atomic/ke02a13/info_h.html
This was hit by an earthquake in July 2007, taking out a large
fraction of all of the electricity in Japan. It is fully back on line
now, I believe.
The power lines from Niigata to Tokyo are awesome. They are among the
biggest with the highest voltage in the world. I saw an NHK program
about the construction of them. Maintenance is done by helicopter.
- Jed
