There is an interesting discussion going on at Paul Homewood's blog. It's about what sort of energy will be the most reliable when extreme cold weather strikes. The answer, of course, is fossil fuels. Wind and solar are fine as an extra add on, but the more reliant we become on them the more we are liable to be let down when an emergency strikes.
Imagine you set out in your electric car when you encounter a blocked road. You will have a much smaller amount of energy to keep you warm than someone in a petrol or diesel vehicle, assuming all vehicles were topped up with fuel or electricity. It could make the difference between life or death.
In a modern country we should expect to be resilient to extreme weather with a more and more robust and reliable network. That does not seem to be the case in parts of the USA where the recent extreme cold has left many without heat and electricity. Some of the contributors on this subject are suggesting that political leaders are deliberately rushing to wind solar and EV's knowing that they will cause hardship.
Personally I find it hard to believe this is true. I suspect they are being misled by advisors who tell them what they want to hear in a modern version of the King's New Clothes story. In the end we know that the king found out the truth and I expect the public will do so too, but, unfortunately, not before a lot of expense and suffering has occurred. Read the details at the link below:
US Grid Needs Fossil Fuels, Not Wind | NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT (wordpress.com)
https://climatecrocks.com/2022/12/29/year-in-review-coal-mines-for-energy-storage/
ReplyDeleteUnderground hydro storage. I know GB has had all kinds of mining going back hundreds of years. Add in energy efficiency, load control, futher investment in wind and solar to 150% or 200% of load, transmission coming out of Europe.
Try selling this to the folks trying to survive the cyclone bomb!
ReplyDeleteA bomb cyclone is prime time for wind. Cold air is denser during the winter making the energy output all the higher. Energy output of a wind turbine increases by velocity cubed. Double the wind speed and you get 8 times the output. Bomb cyclones are perfect times for wind energy.
DeleteWell, something went wrong with the turbines, see below:
ReplyDeleteat this link
Here is the relevant extract
"Texas has 35 GW of wind capacity, but output was running below 5 GW throughout Saturday, and down to 2 GW for much of the day. This certainly was not due to lack of wind, quite the opposite in fact. Whether wind power collapsed because of the winds being too strong, or because of freezing up, I do not know. But either way it was a weather related issue.
Thankfully ERCOT was able to call on ample gas power capacity, both to replace the loss of wind power and meet surging demand, which peaked at 74 GW, about 15 GW more than normal.
Without that gas power, Texas would have faced a catastrophe."
A responsible utility takes all intermittent sources into account. Texas may build nameplate capacity up much higher than 74 gw to average somewhat lower. If they are smart they will have transmission coming in from other geographical areas as a possible assist on lower intermittent times. And then Texas may overproduce to create storage energy and possibly assist other geographical areas. There are other levers the control rooms have to keep the grid stable.
ReplyDeleteBomb cyclones are perfect times for wind power to show its stuff. Above average output with a great deal of durability.
ReplyDeletehttps://w3.windfair.net/wind-energy/pr/27869-awea-bomb-cyclone-wind-energy-extreme-weather-grid-resilience
Let’s first look at PJM, the grid operator serving 13 states and Washington DC. From January 3 through 7, wind output in PJM was 55 percent higher than average wind output in 2017. During the highest demand periods on January 3-5, wind output was consistently three to five times greater than the level PJM plans for and compensates wind for in its capacity market. Wind’s capacity factor exceeded 50 percent multiple times during the three-day period.
So what went wrong in Texas? I am sure they did their best, but dealing with intermittent wind power isn't easy without some reliable back up.
ReplyDeleteThe above post was from 2018. texas had power outages but none of the seriousness of 2021 in February. Its the Texas bureacracy that isn't putting enough pressure on the Texas grid to become more stable in cold winter weather.
Deletehttps://finance.yahoo.com/news/winter-storm-elliott-highlights-vulnerability-010000318.html
Despite the fact that it wasn’t as prolonged as the Winter Storm Uri of February 2021, when millions in Texas lost power for days, the latest storm showed—once again—that energy providers couldn’t accurately predict the power demand surge, and some had to resort to rotating outages to maintain grid stability. Moreover, well freeze-offs led to a plunge in natural gas production in the key gas-producing basin, the Appalachia, sending lower volumes via pipelines to gas-fired power generation units and sending regional natural gas prices soaring along with it.
Less than two years after the February 2021 storm, the latest deadly storm highlighted the fact that the gas systems and grids need to be better prepared for extreme weather events.