Edmund Storms wrote:
Europe has invested in its distribution system because most transportation of goods and people is carried by electric trains. The US has not made this investment . . .
As I mentioned, EPRI says that up to 20% of U.S. can be from wind and other intermittent sources with today's technology. I think they said 10% easily, 20% with some investment. I do not think anywhere in the U.S. is even close to 10% of wind. Of course you may need new power lines to a wind farm, just as you need them for a new nuclear or coal plant. Beyond 20% wind would be challenging and expensive because of intermittent.
Solar thermal is lot less intermittent than wind and in places like California and Nevada it peaks just when demand peaks, when air conditioning demand peaks. So it is a perfect fit to demand. In a rational world, we would be constructing 10 GW of solar thermal for the southwest.
In same parts of Europe, especially Denmark, wind provides 50% to 100% (or more) of electricity on winter nights. EU power authorities have been issuing fines to Danish power companies for delivering unwanted excess wind power. Wind provides ~24% of power in Denmark overall.
- Jed
