Wednesday, November 30, 2011

QOTD

From a new report on the risks of power blackouts by insurer Allianz and the Chief Risk Officer Forum (at 6):
A downside of renewable energy particularly, wind and solar technologies, is the volatile supply of power. Not only may a scarcity of electricity result in a power blackout, but an oversupply can also lead to grid instabilities as they alter the frequency within the network. For example wind energy in East Germany during strong wind conditions can provide up to 12 GW, which is more than all German coal and gas fired power plants considered together. This is not critical as long as there is enough electricity demand, but may lead to grid instabilities in cases of insufficient demand as there is not enough electricity storage capacity available. To get rid of excess electricity, transmission system operators (TSOs) often have to pay an extra fee to the electricity market (EEX -- European Energy Exchange, Leipzig). Otherwise wind park operators have to be convinced to stop the wind turbines immediately in order to prevent grid instabilities and blackouts. Conversely wind turbines must be stopped due to safety reasons if the wind speed exceeds 30 m/sec. This scenario may cause, within one hour, power gaps equal to the performance of two nuclear power plants. In such cases conventional reserve power plants are required to step in instantly.

In addition, the location of e.g. windfarms (onshore and offshore) is often far away from the centres of demand. Electricity has to be transported from sparsely populated regions to large electricity consumers in metropolitan areas. Therefore, new energy infrastructure (new high voltage transmission lines, transformers and energy storage capacities such as pumped-storage hydropower plants or thermal storage facilities) are needed.
Agreed, as to solar, wind and the limitations on hydro storage.

Renewables still account for only a tiny share of energy consumption, because of the expense--and that won't change any time soon. Heck, after promising a major commitment, even Google's abandoning renewable energy production.

(via The Telegraph (U.K.))

2 comments:

OBloodyHell said...

>>> For example wind energy in East Germany during strong wind conditions can provide up to 12 GW

How the hell is THIS being calculated, it sounds like a ridiculously high number.

It also seems rather extremely low for representing a larger portion of the coal/NG fired power in all of Germany, given that the USA uses a full TERAWatt. Germany should be using substantially more power than 30-40 GW, which represents a conservative estimate of the percentage provided by C/NG.

I haven't looked up the real numbers, but right on the surface there are two doubtful claims right there.

@nooil4pacifists said...

OBH: I think you're right that the figure for conventional power generation is far too low. In 2010, Germany as a whole had about 27 GW of land-based wind electricity generation (at 8-9). I haven't found numbers for the Eastern portion of Germany, though 12 GW seems plausible. But even in 2005, Germany as a whole was generating about 74 GW of electricity from coal and natural gas (at 25), far more than 12 GW.