you couldn't run a power network with more than 25% of your sources being either wind or solar.
But this is really a pseudo problem. Wind is currently like 1 % of all power generated while even nuclear is just 15 %. That is, wind have to become bigger than nuclear power before we even need worry much about this issue.
Only Denmark has reached 20 % wind. Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
20% is what you can do with only minor tweaking of the network. But it's possible to go much higher if you invest a bit more in the grid. This has to be one of the silliest arguments against wind when it's only providing 1-3% of electricity. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
this is really a pseudo problem [...] wind have to become bigger than nuclear power before we even need worry much about this issue.
I think a study by an electricity grid regulator would be a good argument to quote. Because pro-wind rule of thumb alone is not enough to balance no-wind rule of thumb. A free fox in a free henhouse!
DANISH WIND INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION - 50% wind energy in the grid is feasible
Grid integration of up to 50% wind energy in the Danish electricity system by 2025 is technically and economically feasible according to a new study from the system operator Elkraft System. "The system is on an hourly basis able to absorb a vast amount of wind power. The system will reach its critical limit - meaning a situation where it is necessary to shut down wind turbines - only a few hours during the year," says Hans Henrik Lindboe, engineer in Elkraft System. The starting point for Elkraft's new assessments has been an expansion of Scandinavian wind power by 17,000 MW. Wind energy installations in Denmark can expand from 3,100 MW today to 5,000 MW in 2025.
Grid integration of up to 50% wind energy in the Danish electricity system by 2025 is technically and economically feasible according to a new study from the system operator Elkraft System.
"The system is on an hourly basis able to absorb a vast amount of wind power. The system will reach its critical limit - meaning a situation where it is necessary to shut down wind turbines - only a few hours during the year," says Hans Henrik Lindboe, engineer in Elkraft System.
The starting point for Elkraft's new assessments has been an expansion of Scandinavian wind power by 17,000 MW. Wind energy installations in Denmark can expand from 3,100 MW today to 5,000 MW in 2025.
Also in 2005, EWEA released a large study on grid integration, you can read the full pdf. While it doesn't zoom in on one quote-able high-end number, I quote a longer passage from the executive summary:
...In the west-Denmark transmission system, which is not connected to the eastern part of the country, some 25% of electricity demand is met by wind power in a normal wind year and, on some occasions, the wind has been able to cover 100% of instantaneous demand. The integration of large amounts of wind power is often dismissed as impossible and many grid operators are reluctant to make changes in long established procedures to accommodate wind power. In Denmark, the grid operator was initially sceptical about how much wind power the system could cope with. The attitude of many grid operators to wind power can best be illustrated by the following quote from Eltra, the TSO in west-Denmark, at the presentation of its annual report. ...Seven or eight years ago, we said that the electricity system could not function if wind power increased above 500 MW. Now we are handling almost five times as much. And I would like to tell the Government and the Parliament that we are ready to handle even more, but it requires that we are allowed to use the right tools to manage the system».
The integration of large amounts of wind power is often dismissed as impossible and many grid operators are reluctant to make changes in long established procedures to accommodate wind power. In Denmark, the grid operator was initially sceptical about how much wind power the system could cope with. The attitude of many grid operators to wind power can best be illustrated by the following quote from Eltra, the TSO in west-Denmark, at the presentation of its annual report.
...Seven or eight years ago, we said that the electricity system could not function if wind power increased above 500 MW. Now we are handling almost five times as much. And I would like to tell the Government and the Parliament that we are ready to handle even more, but it requires that we are allowed to use the right tools to manage the system».
In germany (auf Deutsch) there are the E.on and DENA studies, but i can't translate them, i can barely read them. But they're so positive especially coming from entities which were the biggest barrier just a few years ago. "Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin
