Not too windy today

**TimberWolf** · 29 May 2012, 10:41

What's your source?

**EternalOptimist** · 29 May 2012, 10:43

Originally posted by TimberWolf View Post

What's your source?

oh.

its a green website, dont want to be accused of biased ness

Real Time Carbon Website - Carbon

**BlasterBates** · 29 May 2012, 10:46

Wind produces hardly anything. Same in Germany contributes something like 1%.

Most of the electricity generated by renewables is by "Biomass", approx 10%, which is a useful contribution.

As one professor pointed out, wind is too diffuse. You'd have to cover huge areas with with wind turbines.

**Diver** · 29 May 2012, 10:50

German solar plants produced a world record 22 gigawatts of electricity – equal to 20 nuclear power stations at full capacity – through the midday hours of Friday and Saturday, the head of a renewable energy think tank has said ... Norbert Allnoch, director of the Institute of the Renewable Energy Industry in Muenster, said the 22 gigawatts of solar power fed into the national grid on Saturday met nearly 50% of the nation's midday electricity needs

On one day in April A RECORD 60% of all of Spain’s electricity was powered by wind turbines. This is now becoming a regular occurrence.

Note: Windmills grind grain

National Grid 7 year statement

Power Station Capacities
Table 3.5 presents details of all power stations falling within the scope of this chapter including the output capacity of each over the seven year period, 2006/07 to 2012/13. Amongst other things, Generation Terminology explains that the relevance of the generation capacity terms Transmission Entry Capacity (TEC), Connection Entry Capacity (CEC) and 'Size of Power Station' is a function of the type of Bilateral Agreement in force. For a Bilateral Connection Agreement (BCA), both TEC and CEC are relevant. For a Bilateral Embedded Generation Agreement (BEGA) only TEC is relevant. For a Bilateral Embedded Licence Exemptable Large Power Station Agreement (BELLA), neither TEC nor CEC exists and the term 'Size of Power Station' becomes relevant.

In Table 3.5 the type of power station capacity (i.e. TEC or 'Size of Power Station') given for each of the seven years is denoted by an appropriate entry (i.e. 'yes') in the columns headed 'TEC' and 'Size of Power Station' towards the end of the table. Where CEC is relevant (i.e. for a BCA) a separate entry is included in the column headed 'CEC'. Please note that values of CEC are given in respect of year 2006/07 only.

The information is presented on the basis of Licensee then on power station type. For ease of reference the SYS Study Zone, in which each Power Station is located, is also given as is the Tariff Zone. The SYS Study Zones are explained under SYS Boundaries and SYS Study Zones and Tariff Zones are explained under Yse of System Tariff Zones.

Inspection of Table 3.5 reveals that the aggregate power station capacity (TEC and/or 'Size of Power Station') rises from 76.3GW in 2006/07 to 94.5GW by 2012/13. This is an increase of 23.8% or 18.2GW over the period from the 2006/07 winter peak to the 2012/13 winter peak. This net increase is made of the following:

an increase of 9.7GW in CCGT capacity (12.7%);
an increase of 4.9GW in on-shore wind generation capacity (6.4%);
an increase of 3.3GW in off-shore wind generation capacity (4.3%);
an increase of 1.3GW in new import capability (1.7%);
an increase of 601MW in CHP capacity (0.77%);
an increase of 554MW in Pumped Storage and Hydro capacity (0.73%);
an increase of 135MW in Large Unit Coal capacity (0.18%);
a decrease of 2.3GW in Nuclear Magnox capacity (3.1%).
The largest proportion of the overall increase is due to CCGT plant at 53.4% with CHP accounting for a further 3.3%. The second largest proportion of the increase is due to Wind with on-shore wind accounting for 27% and off-shore wind accounting for 18.2% of the increase. On this basis, the capacity of CCGT plant would overtake that of coal in 2008/09. By 2011/12, CCGT capacity would exceed coal capacity by 4.6GW and account for 35.6% of the total transmission contracted installed generation capacity. Similarly, wind generation capacity (both on-shore and off-shore) is set to rise to 9.4GW by 2012/13. These capacities do not include the embedded Medium and Small generation and embedded External Interconnections with External Systems. The capacity of such embedded generation sources is the subject of Embedded and Renewable Generation.

It should be remembered that the above figures reflect the current contracted position and take no account of future uncertainty. As mentioned previously, it is reasonable to suppose that further new applications for power station connections will be received and, at the same time, some existing contracts may be modified or terminated and some existing power stations will close.

**d000hg** · 29 May 2012, 10:53

Originally posted by EternalOptimist View Post

rounding to the nearest whole number that makes

wind 0%
coal 40%

Sasguru will be back from holiday soon.

**EternalOptimist** · 29 May 2012, 11:00

Whoosh------->

we are not talking about the capacity, we are talking about whats actually happening

we might have a capacity for 6500 MW of wind, we are getting 140 MW

and thats the highest its been for a week

**TimberWolf** · 29 May 2012, 11:05

Another site with UK energy stats here: n e t a | Electricity Summary Page

Wind = 0.7% over the last 24 hours. Don't know what the current installed wind capacity is.

At least with renewables the price is heading inexorably down, while the price of oil, gas and coal, all of which we have to import and pay a handsome profit on to someone, is heading in the opposite direction. As well as leaping around in price and the risk of not getting it at any price if countries get all uppity, which seems quite possible in future.

**BlasterBates** · 29 May 2012, 11:06

Originally posted by EternalOptimist View Post

Whoosh------->

we are not talking about the capacity, we are talking about whats actually happening

Germany's wind capacity is 5-10% but it produces 1%. The reality of wind is that most of the time these wind turbine produce very little.

Same with solar the ratio between what's produced and installed capacity is huge. Sure on a Summer's day at mid-day they produce a lot of electricity, but mid-day in Summer is an exceptional event.

**d000hg** · 29 May 2012, 11:10

Originally posted by EternalOptimist View Post

Whoosh------->

we are not talking about the capacity, we are talking about whats actually happening

we might have a capacity for 6500 MW of wind, we are getting 140 MW

and thats the highest its been for a week

Oh was this supposed to be a serious discussion

What if we worked on a way to make fossil fuel power stations more flexible? The main argument about the variability with renewables like wind is typically "it doesn't help since you can't turn the coal stations down in case the wind drops". But coal power is centuries-old technology - shouldn't we be investing in modernising it for efficiency and flexibility somehow? Britain still has some good boffins, maybe they should get on it.

Not too windy today