Category Archives: Wind

Wind and Solar diurnal and seasonal variations require energy storage

Preface. Currently energy storage is accomplished with the 67% of fossil fuels (natural gas and coal) used to generate electricity, especially natural gas which can kick in within microseconds to make up for failing wind, or run all the time … Continue reading

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Eastern Wind Integration & Transmission study 2011 National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Excerpts from the 242 page Eastern Wind Integration & Transmission study, 2011, EnerNex corporation for National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Key Findings Building transmission capacity takes much longer than installing wind plants. It is already starting to limit wind growth in … Continue reading

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Can wind power be scaled up to 24 TW by 2050?

[Below are excerpts from this 22 page paper. Alice Friedemann] Davidsson, S., et al. (2014) Growth curves and sustained commissioning modelling of renewable energy: Investigating resource constraints for wind energy. Energy Policy. Although the wind itself is a type of … Continue reading

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DOE 2014 Wind vision a new era for wind power in the United States

DOE 2014 Wind vision a new era for wind power in the United States Many potential sites with high quality wind energy resources have minimal or no access to electrical transmission facilities. From the perspective of planning reserves, wind power’s … Continue reading

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Wind turbines hit limits to growth before 50% wind power penetration

Material requirements of 50% wind power in the USA hit limits to growth Also see: Davidsson, S., et al. 2014. Growth curves and sustained commissioning modelling of renewable energy Investigating resource constraints for wind energy. Energy Policy. Fizaine, F., et … Continue reading

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Wind’s dirty secret: it goes on vacation in the summer and year-round in the South East

  Figure 1. Summer wind across the USA is barely to not economically viable Class 3 (light blue), or not at all economically viable Class 2 (orange) and class 1 (blank) (NREL), with very limited darker blue (class 4) and … Continue reading

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Wind power capacity value — effective load carrying capability (ELCC)

NREL. 2008. Determining the Capacity Value of Wind: An Updated Survey of Methods and Implementation. National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Electric systems must have sufficient reserves so that resources are adequate to meet customer demand. Because electricity demand cannot be known … Continue reading

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Is there enough renewable energy to replace fossil fuel electricity generation?

NREL. July 2012. U.S. Renewable Energy Technical Potentials: A GIS-Based Analysis. National Renewable Energy Laboratory. This document is a thought experiment that uses GIS mapping to estimate how much renewable power could possibly be generated in each state regardless of … Continue reading

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Wind notes from government studies

[These are here to help me do research and find citations] Notes from 96 page: EERE. August 2014. 2013 Wind technologies market report. Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy. No commercial offshore turbines have been commissioned in the United States, but … Continue reading

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Wind & Solar need thousands of tons of steel, aluminum, cement, concrete, copper but produce little energy

Summary of Sergio Pacca and Darpa Horvath 2002 Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Building and Operating  Electric Power Plants in the Upper Colorado River Basin ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY / VOL. 36, NO. 14 pp. 3194-3200 As you can see, Wind … Continue reading

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