Offshore wind news becoming repetitive and boring | 69 comments (69 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

In the US, Hoover Dam's output is 2080 MW, compared to 300 MW by the Thanet Offshore Wind Farm.

What exactly is the basis for comparison here?

One comparison with some minimal meaning could be surface area.

Facility	Area	Max power	.../area	Annual production	.../area
Hoover Dam (Lake Mead)	640 km²	2.08 GW	3.25 MW/km²	4.2 TWh	6.56 GWh/km²
Thanet Offshore Wind Farm	35 km²	0.30 GW	8.57 MW/km²	1.0 TWh	28.57 GWh/km²

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Thu Jul 1st, 2010 at 12:41:38 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Offshore wind news (none / 0)

None really. But I was impressed by the small amount of total energy produced by wind turbines overall in the US and Europe. Perhaps technology will improve output and make it competitive.

by shergald on Thu Jul 1st, 2010 at 07:48:23 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Offshore wind news (4.00 / 6)

Momentary market penetration does not reflect how "competitive" it is. Change in market share does, however -- and wind's market share is increasing.

In addition, in some regions where there is both a good wind resource and a long history of wind power, like Denmark and Northern Germany, wind's share is up to 40%. It's double-digits in the entirety of both Spain and Portugal, too.

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Fri Jul 2nd, 2010 at 01:42:37 AM EST
[ Parent ]

In detail with sources (4.00 / 5)

For states of Germany, here (pages 7 and 14) you find potential shares for installed wind in net electricity consumption [based on longtime average wind speeds and 2008 consumption; due to below average winds and significant new capacity added during the year, 2009's actual numbers must have been a tenth or so below these]. While Germany's Northernmost state Schleswig-Holstein indeed sports the 40% number I mentioned, I forgot that East German states catched up, with Sachsen-Anhalt leading at 47%. For all of Germany (see in German), wind's share was 6.5% (a slight drop due to below average winds).
I intended to say 40% for Western Denmark, but now see that I mis-remembered and it is not so uneven. For all of Denmark, in 2009, based on data here (Excel!), wind's share in net consumption (with losses) was 19.32%. (That number shall definitely pass 20% with the off-shore farm mentioned in the diary.) The monthly peak was 28.59% in November, and the low was 12.66% in April.
For much bigger Spain, here you can see that wind's share was 14.39% in 2009, with a monthly peak of 22.62% and a low of 9.63% (August).
In Portugal, as I diaried, wind's share in electricity consumption was 15.03% in 2009.

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Fri Jul 2nd, 2010 at 04:07:28 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: In detail with sources (4.00 / 3)

For much bigger Spain, here you can see that wind's share was 14.39% in 2009, with a monthly peak of 22.62%

(November).

AEE also has this most interesting graph, on the evolution of the different production modes:

The strongest drop is shown by coal ("CARBÓN") -- in fact for the first time both wind ("ÉOLICA") and the sum of other feed-in-law supported renewables ("RESTO RÉGIMEN ESPECIAL") overtook it.
The strongest growth is from combined-cycle gas ("CICLO COMBINADO"), but it stopped recently
The most intermittent on a multi-year scale is hydropower.

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Fri Jul 2nd, 2010 at 04:51:36 AM EST
[ Parent ]

More wind capacity has been built (4.00 / 5)

in the past 10 ears than any other technology in Europe and the US. But there was no wind before that, so the share of the stock is smaller.

Wind power

by Jerome a Paris (etg@eurotrib.com) on Fri Jul 2nd, 2010 at 02:04:37 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Offshore wind news becoming repetitive and boring | 69 comments (69 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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