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Energy Dept. Wants Big Wind Energy Technology In All 50 US States
coondoggie writes: Bigger wind turbines and towers are just part of what the U.S. needs in order to more effectively use wind energy in all 50 states.That was the thrust of a wind energy call-to-arms report called "Enabling Wind Power nationwide" issued this week by the Department of Energy. They detail new technology that can reach higher into the sky to capture more energy and more powerful turbines to generate more gigawatts. These new turbines are 110-140 meters tall, with blades 60 meters long. The Energy Department forecasts strong, steady growth of wind power across the country, both on land and off shore.
That energy has to come from somewhere and blocking the surface wind reduces the air velocity and increases the amount of heat at ground level.
Trees also block the wind. So a simple solution is to require anyone erecting a windmill to cut down a tree to compensate.
A more complicated solution would be to improve math and physics education, so even dimwitted people can figure out that the amount of energy windmills extract from the atmosphere is utterly inconsequential.
EROI still matters as that basically tells energy investors where they will get the biggest return for their money.
The trick is that the EROI for fossil fuels is decreasing as all the easy reserves have been tapped. We're mucking around with high tech dynamically positioned rigs for deep water drilling, oil sands, etc... that require more energy and effort to obtain. The EROI for coal has been depressed artificially due to environmental regulations and CO2 rules, but there are still ample reserves. The EROI for wind and solar should be relatively flat, even rising slightly if the technologies improve.
At some point the fossil fuel EROIs will fall below the EROIs for renewables. It's just a matter of when. Whether you invest in renewables now or later really depends on your perception of the outlook for these energy sources.
The thing to keep in mind is, low EROIs mean low net power production. An EROI of 1.01 is energetically feasible, but it means you are only getting a net surplus of 0.01 units of energy for your 1 unit of effort. That 0.01 is what you get to power your society with. If you are using a technology with an EROI of 1.01, it means you will need a LOT of that technology to power society. You will actually need nearly 2X a LOT of that technology as you need nearly the same amount of power to simply make the technology.
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This can be fixed with flexible pricing of electricity. Charge more when electricity is scarce, and less when it is plentiful
People use electricity when they need to no matter what the price. We turn on lights when it is dark. We cook dinner at dinner time. We have showers in the morning or evening. We wash cloths when we have time. Little of this will be re-scheduled based on the cost of electricity. Are you really going to get up at 3AM to do laundry? I doubt it. Even if you have a timer are you going to leave your wet cloths in the washer till you get up? You might not remember and those cloths will sit for another ten hours. Are you going to skip your morning shower because it will cost you a dollar extra?
The other issue with wind power is that it can vary uncontrollably minute by minute. This is the kind of instability that needs to be leveled out by more storage. Storage has two functions; time shifting and supply leveling.
Look at what is happening now. Certain jurisdictions like California have peak and off-peak electricity rates. The demand is still high during high peak rate times. If you look at those two graphs you will see that price has little or no effect on demand.
Too right, we should also make sure there are no lamp posts, telegraph poles or trees because someday they may be thrown about by a tornado.
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