Re: Who's making a killing?

Richard Robinson wrote:
Guy King said:
The message <mlgmf4h1rnfju7e955qqmkkqkf9fpt95ec@xxxxxxx>
from Austin Shackles <austinDITCHTHISFORBETTERRESULTS@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
contains these words:

My principle objection is that wind is NOT 100% reliable, even if it is
spread over the country, and that other, more reliable things (like tidal)
are being ignored and sidelined because someone somewhere has decreed that
windmills are the way to go.

Nope. Wind is in general about the cheapest renewable source !

OK, but when you complain about wind power it always comes across as you
being dead against it full stop because it's not reliable.

It does, yes. Personally, I see it as a point in favour of thrashing around
and trying everything we can think of, just to see what turns out to jbex,
and in case the expert calcualtions turn out to be, ooh, out by a factor of
ten, say [historical reference alert]. Including wind. There *are* some
things being done with tidal, I think, and we've had some hydro for a long
time ... and, in some localities, some people are getting power from wind,
that would otherwise have burned gas to produce. More of this, less
religious absolutism. If someone has a perfect answer, fine, we'll all eat
it with no argument. In the meantime, it's imperfect or do without.

There are lots of people out there doing lots of calculations and they seem to agree that it's best to have some of every renewable resource paralleled together. One study I saw showed that if all the wind farms in Europe were on the same continent wide grid then if the wind was high all over Europe they could pump water back up dams in Norway, if there was a lull then Norway (and other places with a lot of hydro) would take up the slack.

Clever electrical items like washing machines that could wait until there's a surplus of electricity (up to say 24h delay) would save a lot of peaks, similarly fridges and freezers don't all need to power up exactly when their thermostats tell them.


--
coj

"But it's nothing to worry about; it's all part of growing up and being British."
.

Relevant Pages

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    ... Nope, wind is a lot cheaper than Solar and not quite, look at the map here http://www.cgdev.org/userfiles/image/blog/solar%20radiation.jpg. ... water back up dams in Norway, if there was a lull then Norway (and other ... can't imagine those not being connected to Sweden and them to Norway. ... never mind for all of Europe. ...
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  • Re: Whos making a killing?
    ... Wind is in general about the cheapest renewable source! ... things being done with tidal, I think, and we've had some hydro for a long ... in Europe were on the same continent wide grid then if the wind was high ... was a lull then Norway would take ...
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    ... spread over the country, and that other, more reliable things ... Wind is in general about the cheapest renewable source! ... water back up dams in Norway, if there was a lull then Norway (and other ... can't imagine those not being connected to Sweden and them to Norway. ...
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