You can get individual capacity factors by type of generator at the links.
Gas is at 450 GW and 800 TWh, so a capacity factor below 20%... In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
Fixed system, Netherlands: 10% Tracking system, Netherlands: 12% Fixed system, Sicily: 17% Tracking system, Sicily: 22%
(PV calculator here).
I don't know much about wind capacity factors, but I seem to remember a figure above 30% for offshore wind in the North Sea. Real capricorns don't believe in astrology.
Similarly, while offshore can even reach 40%, the overwhelming majority of European wind (73 out of 75 GW) is on-shore, and it can be well below 20% on some locations. Again I have the TWh and GW numbers for Germany, in 2008, the average capacity factor was around 21.5%, which is contrasted with higher numbers in virtually every other country on the Atlantic coast, so one fourth should be about right as EU average. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
As I expected, the capacity factor for gas is higher than in the USA. As for the 46% for coal plants, note that they are mainly used for 'intermediate load' (pre-scheduled stepped variable generation; mainly to balance the expected daily variation, but also planned shutdowns of baseload plants and predicted wind/solar intermittency).
If the EU-wide average gas-fired plant capacity factor is similar to the German one, then the wind and gas plants installed in 2009 will deliver roughly the same amount of electricity a year. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
