Is wind generation a big con.

dingding

Just thinking about the proliferation of wind turbines and I was wondering about how useful are they.

I would assume that the electrical generation by wind needs a backup as wind can fluctuate. This backup power is provided by fossil fuel plants.

There is a certain amount of electricity that can be brought on stream with hydro immediately but this is limited capacity.

The suppliers are paid for electricity that is generated that requires a fossil fuel backup so in effect we are paying for this electricity twice.

Also we can not decide when to use the electricity, as it is generated it is put on the grid.

We would need a European inter-connector to sell this electricity into Europe and to get backup power when there is no wind.

Or the other idea where sea water is pumped into a dam.

The key point to note is that a fossil fuel generation station probably takes 24 - 36 hours to get fully up to speed.

Is this another green tax.

Is the whole thing a big green scam.

Discuss

Solair

Well, while you do need the backup capacity to ensure that the supply is continious, it does mean that you are burning significantly less gas, coal or oil to generate the power so you do save money on fuel costs even if you do have to maintain idle stand-by capacity.

Ireland's going to be pretty heavily interconnected into the UK over the next while too. The first 500MW DC connection is due to come on stream soon. This is using ±200kV HVDC to hook into the UK's grid. From there there are other interconnectors that connect the UK to France so it's possible to buy-in power from the EU markets.

If that Eirgrid interconnector is a success and proves to be cost effective. I would suspect that a 2nd one will be constructed before long.

Overall, I'd say wind is a long-term benefit in terms of economics as it reduces our dependency on oil / gas prices which are totally whacko at the moment.

antoinolachtnai

The governments have decided in their wisdom (and this is one of the more considered thoughts) that they need to begin gradually building up capacity to produce renewable energy, even though it is not critically required at this point.

The reason for this is that when traditional fuels begin to run out, it will be too late to start building up capacity, because it takes 5 or 10 years to get new power generation on-line, even if the technology is ready and available.

By creating a requirement for renewable electricity, the governments also hope to jump-start the development of new technologies in the area.

Much the same goes for nuclear in many parts of Europe. These plants are good ideas on paper, but they are extremely expensive to actually build and get into production. However, there is a strategic imperative to move away from oil over the next few decades.