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Another record year for the European wind industry | 49 comments (49 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

Nitpick: 877 TWh, so 22%. Even if all of them are peakers, surprisingly low -- I wonder if it is similar in Europe.

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Wed Feb 3rd, 2010 at 04:23:18 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: In the US (4.00 / 3)

With these numbers, the comparison between gas and renewables in the diary is not really correct. For PV you have approximate capacity factors:

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.

by tomhuld (thomas punkt huld at jrc punkt it) on Wed Feb 3rd, 2010 at 06:20:10 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: In the US (none / 1)

The overwhelming majority of European PV is fixed system, and most of it is in Germany. This figure is on one hand pushed up by PV in Spain, on the other hand, down by non-ideal siting (roofs not facing South, trees and hillsides), so I felt the ballpark figure from there (1/9 or 11.1%) could be applied. Now I did a second check on that, estimating the average capacity factor for Germany from total generation and installed capacity (uncertain due to the high growth of the latter), and got around 10.5% -- so it seems non-ideal siting counts less, and the EU average could be around 12.5% or one eighth.

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.}

by DoDo on Thu Feb 4th, 2010 at 04:09:21 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: In the US (none / 1)

I found a diagram with 2008 pie charts for generation and generating capacity. Feeding them into a spreadsheet, I get:

Type of generation	Capacity		Net generation (TWh)		Capacity factor
	(%)	(GW)	(%)	(TWh)	(%)
Total	100%	147.1	100%	599	46%
Nuclear	14%	20.6	23%	138	76%
Lignite	14%	20.6	23%	138	76%
Coal	19%	27.9	19%	114	46%
Natural gas	16%	23.5	14%	84	41%
Wind	16%	23.5	7%	42	20%
Other non-renewable	11%	16.2	6%	36	25%
Other renewable (incl. big hydro, biofuel)	10%	14.7	8%	48	37%

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.}

by DoDo on Thu Feb 4th, 2010 at 04:49:53 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Another record year for the European wind industry | 49 comments (49 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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