No technical limitation to wind power penetration | 48 comments (48 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: No technical limitation to wind power penetrat (none / 1)

Is there any project to use offshore wind + sea water to generate hydrogen ? Hydrogen could be turned to electricity when there is no wind if the farm is directly linked to the grid, otherwise in case of no link, just producing hydrogen and storing it locally.

Might not be feasible (I don't look around).

Probably somewhat wasteful but totally renewable, no carbon involved, and no neighbour NIMBY :).

by Laurent GUERBY on Sun Jan 28th, 2007 at 06:45:47 PM EST

Re: No technical limitation to wind power penetrat (none / 0)

Building a pumped hydro plant at the same time as a wind farm, or hiring the services of one, seems about a thousand times as feasible. :)

Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.

by Starvid on Sun Jan 28th, 2007 at 07:15:21 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: No technical limitation to wind power penetrat (4.00 / 1)

Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.

by Starvid on Sun Jan 28th, 2007 at 07:19:13 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: No technical limitation to wind power penetrat (none / 0)

So it would seem. The problem is one of siting. There are favorable sites for wind power, and there are favorable sites for pumped-storage hydro. The number of sites that are favorable for both are a small fraction of the two. An alternative is to ship power across the grid from wind farm to storage facility. Of course that raises technical issues of its own, such as transmission capacity and coordination. None of those represent insurmountable difficulties, but neither are they freebies.

We all bleed the same color.

by budr on Sun Jan 28th, 2007 at 07:52:54 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: No technical limitation to wind power penetrat (4.00 / 2)

One of the interesting things about the Tidal Electric

http://www.tidalelectric.com/

"Tidal Lagoon" solution is that installing pumps allows the lagoon to be used for pumped storage (including pumping OUT at low tide) at several states of the tide, particularly as the lagoon perimeter has to be at a height sufficient to contain the relatively few really high spring tides, plus surges etc.

I'm a big fan of Tidal lagoons, coupled with judicious use of barrages, where tides are not necessarily cut off, but restricted to multiple choke points.

"The future is already here -- it's just not very evenly distributed" William Gibson

by ChrisCook (cojockathotmaildotcom) on Sun Jan 28th, 2007 at 11:06:00 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: No technical limitation to wind power penetrat (4.00 / 2)

no bid.

I don't much like messing with the coast line as opposed to building reservoirs inland. Every time we mess with the coast lines we seem to foul up some major habitat.
There are enough mountains in most locales to be able to use water storage.

If we switch to plug in electric vehicles we should be able to use them to store excess nighttime production as well. IE, design the plug in points to only function after the local peak or if in an emergency at a much higher price. Our current electrical systems are sized for the peak + a safety factor. On our little island that means we have 135 MW of capacity to handle the daily peak of about 75 with an average of 50-55 MW for example.

We also need to shift the location of high energy industry to areas with lots of wind power much as we used to local Al smelters near hydro sources. Server racks can sit pretty much anywhere.

by HiD on Mon Jan 29th, 2007 at 12:00:00 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Smart grid with (PH)EVs -- (4.00 / 2)

This seems the fastest and most secure route to effective use of renewable sources at much higher levels.

Large-scale penetration of Plug-In and all Electric Vehicles with development of a smart(er) grid that can draw from those vehicles when the grid requires power.

Blogging regularly at Get Energy Smart. NOW!!!

by a siegel (siegeadATgmailIGNORETHISdotPLEASEcom) on Mon Jan 29th, 2007 at 12:47:47 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: No technical limitation to wind power (4.00 / 3)

The reason I am against big barrages like the Severn scheme and in favour of tidal lagoons (particularly "mini" ones) is that the latter are so much less intrusive environmentally.

Their ability to handle pumped storage as well is just a bonus which makes them even more attractive financially.

But I am 100% with you on the electric car/fuel cell as storage point, which adds to my existing interest in

http://www.autoindustry.co.uk/articles/05-06-06

which is backed by some extremely well-connected auto world people.

Building a car around the fuel cell, rather than vice versa seems like the way to go, and they have brought the necessary fuel cell capacity (and hence cost) right down, which is the key.

I'm also interested in the "Open Source" thinking, because I believe it is possible to come up with a half-way house between "Open Source" ands "Proprietary", but that's another story.

"The future is already here -- it's just not very evenly distributed" William Gibson

by ChrisCook (cojockathotmaildotcom) on Mon Jan 29th, 2007 at 05:39:48 AM EST
[ Parent ]

No technical limitation to wind power penetration | 48 comments (48 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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