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Surely only at peak output.
I can’t believe this statistic.
“According to La Asociacion Empresarial Eolica, wind energy prices could drop to 6 euros per MWh. Wind energy has experienced a savings of 2.077 billion euros for the electrical system (4.50 euros of savings per citizen).”
Very nice to see that they have made this actually save money. Not much per person but I do like to see green energy when it is cost competitive.
The percentage would be expected to be highest at night, when the wind speeds typically are highest and when demand is lowest. Without any data showing how these figures compare with other time of day/time of year figures, this is only a “feel good” report.
I’m curious as to the cost,today,of one killowatt hour of electricity generated by wind vs one generated in more conventional ways.And assuming wind power is a *lot* more expensive than traditional power by how much can wind power be made cheaper over time...if it can be made at all cheaper?
This sounds very low. Too bad it isn't mentioned whether this includes any capital, installation or maintenance costs.
About 9-11% of Spain’s power is wind generated.
The problem with wind power is actually power storage. Thermal generating plants have a consistent power output which is not the case for wind power.
The highly variable electrical output of wind power means that the effective usage is low, and the actual replacement of traditional power plants doesn’t take place. The traditional thermal or hydroelectric plants must remain on-line in case the wind power output drops. The lower energy availability of the wind farms determines the reliability of the system as a whole without adequate storage.
Without an adequate storage scheme the utility companies must build more traditional power plants to meet peak demand. Compressed-air storage is the best system so far to achieve this storage. This raises the cost of wind power and reduces its competitiveness against traditional power plants and means a higher utility bill.
In other news, the cyclones that appeared Monday morning have finally dissipated...
I think at least one Spanish company is serious about wind generation. About four years ago it hired a promising power engineering student from Maine to work for them. If they cast their recuiting net that far they must be serious.
I find this hard to believe.
I have seen many other sources state that wind power, due to the peaks and valleys of production by such an inconsistent source, could never be more than 20% of total supply for any grid. Also, even the 20% figure was theoretical, as even relatively large wind-energy producers such as Netherlands and Denmark have not even come close to that figure.
Any experts out there who can solve this?
What they dont tell you is that all that wind power needs back up power called spinning reserves.Spain is right next to France with huge spinning reserves of nuclear power especially at 5am when demand is at its low for the day. France is all to happy to sell its reserve nuclear power at an instant to Spain should the wind stop blowing. It’s a myth that nuclear power cant load follow. modern reactors can and do load follow on a daily basis in France. Who are using American designed reactors i might addm there whole system is based on Westinghouse reactors designed by yup us.
Don’t have anything against wind or any other type of viable energy source, but to get a better picture I’d like to know:
1. What is the total installed wind energy capacity for Spain?
2. Per KW of wind energy installed, how much conventional capacity do they have (or should have) on standby to back this up for when the wind don’t blow?
3. How much conventional fuel are they burning to keep the conventional generators spinning while on standby?
I thought the earlier thread said 55% was made up of Wave Energy?
> 43% of Spain’s electricity demand — with 9,253 MW of wind energy in operation — of the 21,264 MW total demand.
http://www.physics.uci.edu/~silverma/units.html
1 Quad = 10^15 BTU (World energy usage is about 300 Quads/year, US is about 100 Quads/year in 1996.)
1,000 kWh = 3.41 million BTU
[comment: hmm, some calculations, pardon my math, and maybe my source]
1 Quad=1,000,000,000,000,000 BTU
3.41*1000000*21264*24*365=6.351897024e+14 BTU
or
0.6351897024 of 1 Quad per year (that’s all Spanish use, I think)