Some of the energy should be strored as mechanical energy (perhaps pumping water uphill?) to be used for times like this.
Someone tell the eco-nuts about this story yet? And yet they don’t want anything like, say, nuclear power.
Wow...with all the windbags down there? Unbelievable!!! (ROTFLMAO)
Perhaps, but what did they expect? You can regulate output on fossil and nuclear plants, as well as hydro plants, but wind doesn't allow for a lot of regulation. If it isn't blowing, you can't generate. You can't store wind either, though pumped hydro is an option (as you mention).
You need some inexpensive backup generators that use fossil fuels if you are going to have wind generation.
Or a regional grid large enough that you can virtually assure wind power from somewhere will be operating at capacity.
Heck, if you knew the wind was going to blow all the time, wind generation would already be feasible, just like hydroelectric power. The reason wind costs so much is that you have to overbuild capacity and provide backups.
On the other hand, half of florida went black for a while a couple of nights ago because of an incident at a nuclear facility.
Pretty much any generating plant CAN experience failure of some sort which requires rebalancing the grid or having blackouts.
In a related note, bean supplies are at historic highs.
Considering both the economics and thermodynamics, wind energy is a bad alternative. The cost per kilowatt of electricity from a wind generator is almost 4 times that of a nuclear plant and any schemes to “save” wind energy by “storing” it in the form of air pressure, falling water etc. are hopelessly inefficient due to thermodynamic losses. Like corn ethanol, wind energy is a feel good boondoggle that does little or nothing to provide for our long term energy needs.
My fear is the “Global Slowing” caused by these wind farms.
Think about it, a fast wind is needed to turn the blades and then you have slow wind exiting the blades.
If we slow the wind down to make electricity then the Earth will stop rotating fast enough to keep spinning in orbit!
We are Doomed! DOOMED!
</ sarcasm off>