Proposed grid to make offshore wind power more reliable

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.udel.edu/udaily/2010/apr/pnaswind040510.html

Proposed grid to make offshore wind power more reliable

3:05 p.m., April 5, 2010----The energy needs of the entire human population could potentially be met by converting wind energy to electricity by means of wind turbines. While offshore wind power resources are abundant, wind turbines are currently unable to provide steady power due to natural fluctuations in wind direction and strength.

However, offshore wind power output can be made more consistent by choosing project development locations that take advantage of regional weather patterns and by connecting wind power generators with a shared power line, according to a paper by researchers from the University of Delaware and Stony Brook University that is published in the April 5 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“Making wind-generated electricity more steady will enable wind power to become a much larger fraction of our electric sources,” said the paper's lead author, Willett Kempton, professor of marine policy in UD's College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment and director of its Center for Carbon-free Power Integration.

The research team -- which also included UD alumnus Felipe Pimenta, UD research faculty member Dana Veron, and Brian Colle, associate professor in the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University -- demonstrated that thoughtful design of offshore wind power projects can minimize the impacts of local weather on power fluctuations.

The researchers analyzed five years of wind observations from 11 monitoring stations along the U.S. East Coast from Florida to Maine. Based on wind speeds at each location, they estimated electrical power output from a hypothetical five-megawatt offshore turbine. After analyzing the patterns of wind energy among the stations along the coast, the team explored the seasonal effects on power output.

“Our analysis shows that when transmission systems will carry power from renewable sources, such as wind, they should be designed to consider large-scale meteorology, including the prevailing movement of high- and low-pressure systems,” said Kempton.

Colle explained the ideal configuration. “A north-south transmission geometry fits nicely with the storm track that shifts northward or southward along the U.S. East Coast on a weekly or seasonal time scale,” he said. “Because then at any one time a high or low pressure system is likely to be producing wind (and thus power) somewhere along the coast.”

The researchers found that each hypothetical power generation site exhibited the expected ups and downs, but when they simulated a power line connecting them, the overall power output was smoothed so that maximum or minimum output was rare. In the particular five-year period studied, the power output of the simulated grid never stopped completely.

No wind turbines are presently located in U.S. waters, although projects have been proposed off the coasts of several Atlantic states. This research could prove useful as project sites are selected and developed.

Reducing the severity of wind power fluctuations would allow sufficient time for power suppliers to ramp up or down power production from other energy sources as needed. Solutions that reduce power fluctuations also are important if wind is to displace significant amounts of carbon-emitting energy sources, the researchers said.

...

http://commcgi.cc.stonybrook.edu/am2/publish/General_University_News_2/Proposed_Wind_Power_Grid_To_Make_Offshore_Wind_Power_More_Reliable.shtml

[Oregone]

1. Offshore windfarms just take up valuable space we could use for drilling!

:rofl:

[NNadir]

4. Not to worry. Denmark's all over it. Their rigs off their coast produce both forms

of energy in concert, although, truth be told, all the wind plants in Denmark couldn't hold a candle to the amount of oil and gas they drill offshore.

http://www.ens.dk/graphics/UK_Facts_Figures/Statistics/yearly_statistics/2007/Flow2007.pdf">From the Danish Energy Agency: It's energy flow chart

See that thin green line on the top?

That's the total of all Danish "renewable energy."

See that thick blue lines and that thick yellow line. That's how much energy Denmark obtains from its "drill, baby, drill" energy policy.

Um...um...um...

The wind and oil, and gas industry all fit together snugly. In fact Vestas bills itself at the Vestas Wind, Oil and Gas Company, or at least did so in their http://www.vestas.com/Admin/Public/DWSDownload.aspx?File=%2FFiles%2FFiler%2FEN%2FInvestor%2FFinancial_reports%2F2006%2F2006-AR-UK.pdf">2006 Company Report although for marketing reasons, they seem to be less sanguine about their real agenda, which is to make sure the last molecule of gas is burned and the waste dumped in the atmosphere.

Anyone who is serious about phasing out dangerous fossil fuels - and I seem to feel somewhat alone in having this agenda - realizes that the wind industry is nothing more than an effort to entrench the dangerous fossil fuel industry by greenwashing it.

Have a nice day.

[Oregone]

5. Interesting perspective

"greenwashing"

Sometimes it seems like the only reason for the existence of many green energies is to do simply that so far.

I'm not entirely sure how this can ever be solved without massively changing lifestyles and the way the economies are setup (perhaps even switching to politically unfeasible no-growth policies). In the meantime, is green energy supposed to just make everyone feel good while they burn their way to oblivion?

[NNadir]

7. I'm convinced that the public perception of what is "green" energy is not even remotely connected

with the well understood concept of the external cost of energy.

You will hear, for instance, that gas energy is "clean."

It's no such thing.

The same is largely true of wind and solar, although their external costs are largely hidden by the fact that they don't produce much energy. They never have, nor, I believe, will they.

They generate far more complacency than energy.

[bananas]

2. open-access (free)

http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2010/03/29/0909075107.abstract

[kristopher]

3. Full open access article can be downloaded here

http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2010/03/29/0909075107.full.pdf+html

Figure 3 is interesting.


Abstract
World wind power resources are abundant, but their utilization could be limited because wind fluctuates rather than providing steady power. We hypothesize that wind power output could be stabilized if wind generators were located in a meteorologically designed configuration and electrically connected. Based on 5 yr of wind data from 11 meteorological stations, distributed over a 2,500 km extent along the U.S. East Coast, power output for each hour at each site is calculated. Each individual wind power generation site exhibits the expected power ups and downs. But when we simulate a power line connecting them, called here the Atlantic Transmission Grid, the output from the entire set of generators rarely reaches either low or full power, and power changes slowly. Notably, during the 5-yr study period, the amount of power shifted up and down but never stopped. This finding is explained by examining in detail the high and low output periods, using reanalysis data to show the weather phenomena responsible for steady production and for the occasional periods of low power. We conclude with suggested institutions appropriate to create and manage the power system analyzed here.

[OKIsItJustMe]

6. Figure 3