

But there are limits that could hold wind back from growing












Source: Harvard University

Comments     Threshold


By michal1980 on 2/27/2013 10:07:08 AM , Rating: 0
wow anandtech is now followed by PR spokespeople?

amazing trolling.


By Mint on 2/27/2013 11:08:17 AM , Rating: 3
You know what? I'm actually glad, because I'd love to debate the value of wind power with an industry spokesperson.

Inescapable fact? So what do you do about filling in the gaps when wind isn't blowing? Don't give me the "interconnected farms" line, because wind is highly correlated across vast geographic regions. Take a look at Europe's total wind output spanning thousands of miles:
Even if they had a perfect grid, they'd still have minimums of <5% capacity factor.

So what's the answer, energy storage? Unless there are fortuitous geographical features for hydro storage like New Zealand, it's too costly. Nothing else can store/release electricity for even double the generation cost. If it could, we wouldn't have peaker plants and so much higher daytime market rates. Nothing is even close to the 1-2c/kWh needed to ignore the variability of wind.

In reality, we use natural gas to fill in the variability of wind, but the problem is that CCGT plants don't run as efficiently ramping up and down instead of just minimizing variation. Even if you believe that combating AGW is worthwhile, this inefficiency means 1kWh of wind doesn't entirely displace the natural gas used by 1kWh of CCGT generation.

That's the problem: You can build 1GW of wind, but variability means you need 1GW of natural gas as well to back it up, and that plant will charge higher rates for not only running inefficiently, but also running at lower capacity factor when it's not needed due to wind generation. Its only savings are fuel cost, or maybe 2-3c/kWh. If wind can't produce power that cheap, then it raises the system-wide cost of generation. Is there any hope of hitting that cost floor? I sincerely doubt it.

I await your reply, Michael Goggin...

Logic is not appreciated by those seeking government funds.



I do. It's not their job nor within their authority.

By DanNeely on 2/27/2013 11:15:21 AM , Rating: 2
Anandtech's had occasional PR/Senior Management/Engineers answering questions about products of theirs that were reviewed for years. This is the first time I've seen one on DailyTech though.

I suspect however that this study was bad enough press for them that wind industry spokespeople are monitoring and attacking it anywhere Google finds something they can comment on.

