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Tech Allows Stable Integration of Wind In the Power Grid
diegocgteleline.es writes "One of the most frequently raised arguments against renewable power sources is that they can only supply a low percentage of the total power because their unpredictability can destabilize the grid. Spain seems to have disproved this assertion. In the last three days, the wind power generation records with respect to the total demand were beaten twice (in special conditions: a very windy weekend, at night): 45% on November 5 and almost 54% last night (Google translation; Spanish original). There was no instability. These milestones were accomplished with the help of a control center that processes meteorologic data from the whole country and predicts, with high certainty, the wind and solar power that will be generated, allowing a stable integration of all the renewable power. You can see a graphic of the record here."
Not if the earth begins to spin slower because we are taking energy out of wind.
Nope, because the system has feed back, when you break the system is when there are problems. Producing a little CO2 is not a problem, producing more than the planet can handle w/o changing the pH of the ocean is.
Just like wind, the world isn't covered in windmills, but, if you had enough wind turbines to produce 100% of the earth's energy, then we'd have a problem.
Clearly energy is already being taken out of wind, I'm arguing against pushing wind as a primary power source, not for clear cutting the planet because I 3 wind.
So, what you're saying is that using solar/wind will massively change the climate by changing the absorption characteristics ...
What, pray tell, were we trying to prevent again ?
(just wondering)
I'll look at your numbers later (which I do appreciate). But the effects of wind turbines on global weather are not imaginary.
"The thing you are missing is how tiny a fraction of the fossil fuel energy we are capable of removing...."
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
net energy loss in the neighborhood of 7.59x10^18 joules/year-- about 241GW
This is a power not an energy, but I do get the point.
World Energy Usage: 20 TrillionKWH .6 ms a year. .022
Maximum Windmill->E efficiency is about 30% so tripple that and get 60 Trillion KWH of energy taken out of the system per year.
Relating that to your example system would correspond to a slowing of about
Ok, while certainly non-zero, that isn't that much of a problem. Prove to me that it won't effect the weather and I'll be much happier.
60*10^12/(241 * 10^9 *365*24/1000) *
You, my new friend, need to contrast your belief in the conservation of angular momentum with your blatant disregard for the conservation of energy. If I store energy (in the form of electricity) made from wind energy (kinetic), I have taken that energy out of the system, because energy cannot be created, nor destroyed (at least on this level).
Congrats on your PhD, but i'm glad they didn't ask you this question on your quals. And as this is covered in physics 101, qualification dropping is meaningless. You can't just hand wave and say, oh it would have been heat. Your assumption that angular momentum is only effected by torques is flawed. Yes that is angular momentum 101, but it certainly fails to describe what is accelerating the blades of the windmill. Or will they turn indefinitly too?