The intermittency of wind and solar power could be worse than originally thought, experts say

Just the News ^ | May 2, 2024 | Kevin Killough

[JohnBovenmyer]

Maybe they should put some at Cape Denison. Katabatic winds there are as reliable as Niagara Falls. Average wind speed, over two years, was over 50 mph and often was 150 - 200 mph. Of course it might be difficult and expensive to construct them there and keep them working. And quite the challenge to connect them to the grid.

[21twelve]

I was reading a newspaper article to my daughter about some guy that had his emotional support animal stolen. It was a 5.5 foot long aligater.

She said “That’s just crazy!”

I said - actually, it might be the most sane article in the paper today.

Front Page: “Worries grow as electrical supply falls behind.” (Yes, closing down coal, reducing natural gas, talk of removing dams...)

Second Page: “Homeless funds overwhelmed by new homeless.” (New “immigrants”, people from out of state, etc.)

[GenXPolymath]

Ercot has up the second for those with access and down to the individual megawatt where and what percentage of the total grid is by source. At 0039 this morning wind was 53% of the Texas grid. Wind was making 24,000 megawatts and gas was making 13,000 megawatts. A better way to look at it is gas could have made all 37,000 megawatts instead wind saved 18,000,000 BTU per megawatt times 37 or 666,000,000 BTU worth of natural gas PER HOUR this morning. Every BTU not burnt is saved for another day or future generations. Gas is more valuable as fertilizers and plastics vs burning it once to the sky. Gas is used to make concrete and steel and plastics that went into those turbines as well. However that energy used to make those turbines will return 40 times to 100 times the energy in that natural gas harvested by those turbines vs burning once in a turbine to the sky. The scientific term is EROI and wind turbines have a EROI of 40 to 100 for class 5 on up wind fields.

Gas should only be used for peak power or to fill in lows.

“In 2021, the average construction cost for this type of electricity generator stood at 512 U.S. dollars per kilowatt of capacity”

A half cent per kWh fee on wind or solar to fund the build out of those types of fast spin up turbines that only burn precious gas that is a limited resource regardless of what boomers say who don’t have 20 years in the geology industry. It takes millions if not tens to hundreds of millions of years for a total hydrocarbon system to form, go through the oil/gas window and then migrate to geological traps. Humans are burning 400+ million years of fossil sunshine in under 200 by definition and pure mathematics that cannot, is not, and will never be sustainable over a long time period. That’s really not up for discussion as the industry and scientific community has mapped , 3D seismic and geophysical analysis via gravity survey and geomagnetic every basin on this planet. The community knows where and how much is in place, technically recoverable at any price as well. Mine once use many. That applies for natural gas as much as coal or liquid hydrocarbons.