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Something I haven't seen mentioned in this discussion yet is that you can reduce the variability of renewable energy by distributing production over wide areas
by DiogenesKynikos 7y ago
Something I haven't seen mentioned in this discussion yet is that you can reduce the variability of renewable energy by distributing production over wide areas and building relatively efficient long-distance high-voltage DC connections to link up different regions.
The wind may not blow all the time in New York, but it's blowing somewhere in North America. You can average down fluctuations in wind power by building wind turbines on the East Coast, in the Midwest, in the West Coast, etc., and linking everything together.
That reduces the need for storage. You can even further reduce the need for storage by working on adjusting demand dynamically, based on the price of energy. Big office buildings can go for an hour without A/C without people noticing much.
- roter 7y agoHere's an article on wind capacity factor across the US region-by-region [0]. The significant conclusion is that winds nationwide are stronger in winter and weaker in summer. California and the Northwest buck this trend with strongest winds in spring, early summer. [0] https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=20112 https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=20112
- DiogenesKynikos 7y agoThat's interesting. You could imagine distributing wind farms in such a way as to try to minimize variance (while still trying to maximize overall output - there would be a trade-off). It would be interesting as well to see what the overall variability of wind + solar + hydro generation would be for various distributions of wind + solar plants over North America.