Cost of electricity from Wind.

constitutionus

air wrote:

Hyrdro creates it's own problems, not least of all the amount of land it consumes. With the current price of land in Ireland I can't see any new hydro stations in the near future.
Micro hydro is another issue and is something which can be extremely economically viable for those near a suitable site.

lucky buggers, i remember watching a program on RTE (yes i know im shocked too:D ) about people using latest techniques in housing development to maximise the energy efficiencies of their houses (mostly country, stand alone homes) and this one lad was COMPLEATLY independant from the grid powering all his home on a combination of solar, structural design (ie south facing to maximise sunlight) and hydro electric from a waterfall on his land. it was incredible to see what can be done:)

air

As I mentioned earlier, practically anyone in Ireland in a one off house with room for a tower can live off grid on wind and solar if they have a super insulated house and are energy efficient. Micro hydro is the most cost effective renewable energy source there is however, all you need is piping, a turbine, a battery bank and inverter & some wiring.

ch750536

I live on top of a hill in mountcollins, co. limerick. I can see about 30 wind generators from my house.

They NEVER stand still. This is the west coast of Ireland after all.

In fact, today has only a slight wind (<3kph from my vane) and they are all still very active.

Akrasia

spooiirt!! wrote:

I do, but its in German. some science website...

http://www.buerger-fuer-technik.de/argumente.html

haha its a bit crap, cos you probably dont speak german... so il quote and translate for you:

"Für 1 MW Windenergie müssen 0,85 MW konventionelle Energie in Reserve bereitstehen "

For every MW produced by wind facilities, 0.85 MW from conventionel sources have to be constantly ready.


"Echte Herstellkosten Solarstrom: min 0,40 €/kWh
Strom aus Braunkohle, Kernenergie: 0,02 €/kWh "



Cost of one kwh Solar energy 40 cent, cost of coal/ nukuler energy o.o2 cent per kwh.
I assume kwh is a basic unit of measuring electricity, maybe Kilo watt hour".
No idea. Still its pretty expensive.


What ive read on the subject ( mostly in newspapers and the internet, as well as one book about what our state wastes money on), has told me that wind energy is essentially pointless, as it has to be constantly backed up because wind levels are hard to predict, and obviously when theres no wind, theres no power. The problem is that you cannot just flick on your coal/nuclear plants, and have them take over as soon as the windmills stop, because they have to build up steam to produce energy, and that takes a few hours. Hence the 6 stations we have here burning day and night.

Why are we taking the figures of central european almost landlocked germany and using them to say that it would be inefficient for Ireland, an ocean Island with far different prevailing wind conditions to produce wind energy.

Wind energy is more than just giant wind farms, it should be a requirement for every new house and commercial building to have a wind turbine built in to the house design to suppliment their own electricity needs, they could sell extra energy back to the grid if they are producing too much at any particular time There is no good reason why this isn't a condition of planning right now

Capt'n Midnight

air wrote:

Hyrdro creates it's own problems, not least of all the amount of land it consumes. With the current price of land in Ireland I can't see any new hydro stations in the near future.
Micro hydro is another issue and is something which can be extremely economically viable for those near a suitable site.

The era of new big hydro plants in the richer countries has passed,as you say for land prices and also because of NIMBY's and environmental concerns and because most of the major rivers have already been tapped. Also very large dams hold a lot of water and the total weight can lead to an increase in local earthquakes as it settles !

MicroHydro pumped storage ? - especially in the mountains., since the water is reused you don't need as much feedwater. But you environmental concerns are still an issue. I can't remember the name off hand but there are fish in some of the lakes in wicklow that occupy the niche of trout elsewhere.


Again - does anyone have costs on the carbon tax we'd have to pay to continue to use fossil fuels ??

Oh and we should look again at coppicing perhaps try with a peat station that would be due to be closed down anyway ?