3 ms·
> ..If the need is for regular bursts, high volumes on short periods, wind won't be of much use. Just on this point, the article talks about curtailment: At t
by achow 7y ago
> ..If the need is for regular bursts, high volumes on short periods, wind won't be of much use.
Just on this point, the article talks about curtailment:
At times, strong winds can cause wind farms to produce an excess of power relative to demand, causing a farm's output to be reduced. This process, called curtailment, remained a small factor, with only two percent of the potential generation lost this way. Put differently, if the curtailed electricity had been used, it would have only raised the average capacity factor by 0.7 percentage points.
It sounds like 'short bursts' is really not a problem.
- makomk 7y agoI'm pretty sure curtailment is the exact reverse of what the comment you're replying to is talking about - it happens when there's an excess burst of wind power compared to demand, whereas the question is about wind power filling bursts of demand. Since there's almost no curtailment it seems pretty clear that wind power doesn't currently play a role in filling those; there's just not the excess capacity for it. Of course, curtailment is only low right now because most of the generation is from fossil fuel plants which are shut down in preference to wind. Once that changes curtailment will go up and capacity factor will go down.
- achow 7y agoYou are right, I totally missed that. However now, in that case actually no renewable source of energy - wind, solar, geo thermal.. (other than perhaps hydro) can fulfill the need of sudden burst of energy - wind is like any other.