WIND ENERGY: HOW IT’S DOING NOW

In response to a fascinating paper from two Stanford scholars showing that wind energy's intermittency can be virtually eliminated by a smart, interconnected grid over a large enough range (see Supplying Baseload Power and Reducing Transmission Requirements by Interconnecting Wind Farms) LiveScience takes a closer look at the industry's progress.

It is an opportune moment to reconsider wind energy's growing contribution. Leaders in Congress are looking for a way to extend New Energy production tax credits (PTCs) and investment tax credits (ITCs). Recalcitrant, fossil fuel-funded Senators and Congressman continue to obstruct passage of these New Energy incentives and protect oil, gas and coal industry subsidies. (See POWER OF WIND)

Wind energy opponents object to supposed noise long ago minimized, possible danger to birdlife long ago controlled and interruption of their view. Advocates say whatever managable negatives wind energy might have don't mean a thing compared to the poisonous pollutions and landscape ravages caused by Big Coal and the potentially cataclysmic dangers of nuclear plants.

Cristina Archer, Carnegie Institution for Science/wind advocate: "People fought the building of the Golden Gate Bridge, claiming it would ruin the landscape…Now it costs more to have a house with a view of the bridge."

Whatever Happened to Wind Energy?
Michael Schirber, January 15, 2008 (LiveSceince via Yahoo News)

WHO
Cristina Archer, Carnegie Institution for Science; Howard Hayden, retired physicist/New Energy skeptic/distributor, The Energy Advocate newsletter

While wind energy has recalcitrants, its boosters are driving it to unprecedented levels of accomplishment and prominence. (click to enlarge

WHAT
Over objections by some, wind energy is growing rapidly – 45% in 2007 – and Archer’s new study calculates how much it would take to supply all U.S. power.

WHEN
Windmills have been used by people to do work for at least 1000 years. They began being used to generate electricity in 1886. The modern wind energy industry started developing around 1980 though many of today’s turbine designers were experimenting in the 1970s.

WHERE
The Archer/Jacobson study Supplying Baseload Power and Reducing Transmission Requirements by Interconnecting Wind Farms is in the November 2007 issue of the Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology.

Archer and her Stanford colleague created a hypothetical interconnected 19 wind farm array. Calculations indicate interconnection eliminates intermittency because the wind is always blowing somewhere. (click to enlarge)

WHY
- There are now 16,000+ megawatts of installed wind energy in the U.S., more than 1% of total U.S. electricity. Most experts agree wind energy could readily grow to meet 20%-30% of U.S. power in the next quarter century.
- Opponents contend wind energy is too expensive to develop widely.
- Archer calculates that 260,000 turbines would generate enough electricity to meet all United States needs.
- World wind is 35 times the world’s energy demand. A big enough network of wind farms, interconnected through a smart grid, could make use of that abundance to overcome wind’s intermittency.
- Wind is the result of uneven heating over the earth’s surface by the sun. 2% of the sun’s energy creates all the earth’s wind.
- Contemporary wind turbines capture 50% of the wind that blows through.
- Intermittency is the result of varying wind speeds. (Ex: Wind in the Midwest varies when cold Canadian winds hit warm Gulf of Mexico winds.) If windspeed drops 50%, wind energy drops 90%. This requires adjustments on the grid, which must run at a steady frequency and voltage to support the flow of power. The new study suggests that a network of 19 wind farms interconnected by a smart grid over a 500 mile by 500 mile area, could obtain wind where it is blowing and keep power supply at a nearly steady “baseload.”
- The new “smart” transmission might cost a million dollars/mile. But it is not out of reach.
- There is a current plan to build a network for offshore wind farms in the North Sea.

When they were building it, people complained it ruined the view. Now it IS the view. (click to enlarge)

QUOTES
- Howard Hayden, retired physicist/New Energy skeptic/distributor, The Energy Advocate newsletter: "It really kills the view to have mile after mile of wind turbines…Wind has its place because it does save fuel…But it should not be more than 10 percent of the electricity supply."
- Hayden,on the required smart grid: "We don't have a grid system to do this…"
- Cristina Archer, Carnegie Institution for Science: "To me, the number [of turbines necessary to generate all U.S. electricity] is pretty small…It is the nature of the wind to gust and lull… Chances are that it's windy somewhere…"
- Archer, on the required smart grid: "The main issue is not technological, but political since this network would have to cross utility boundaries…"