Post by eskimo on Jul 4, 2013 6:05:45 GMT -4
In the UK there is 4868 operational wind turbines with a registered capacity of 9627 MW (9.6 GW). For the first 6 months of 2013 (1 Jan -30 June) the average electricy demand was 37.7 GW, production for wind was 2.04 GW, this is equal to 5.4% of demand.
The lowest amount wind produced was in June when it managed 19 MW (0.019 GW) during a period of high demand of 50 GW. - around 0.04%
If it takes 4869 turbines to produce an average of 5.4% on a demand of 37.7 GW, how many turbines will it take to produce all the electricity we require on a period of high demand? Note that often the periods of really cold weather co-incide with times when there is little wind. By a very rough 'Guestimate' it could be in the region of 100,000 to 200,000 turbines. Even then there will be many periods when there will still be little wind and very little production. Conversly there will be periods when the wind blows strongly and these wind turbines will produce a massive over capacity and have to be switched off because there will be no market for excess electricity.
Wind is probably the most inefficient and expensive means of electric production ever thought of. Even with 200,000 turbines there will still need to be fossil fuel back up to keep the lights on.
Most turbines these days cost around £1.25M to £2M so we are taling of around £400,000 million (and these will need replacing every 15-25 years.
How many people are actually stupid enough to think that wind is a suitable medium for electric production?
I have put a chart of the main electric generating sources on my web-site. The X-axis is amount of GW produced by the source, and the Y-axis is the total number of hours at each level. Figures on X-Axis is 1 (up to 1 GW), 2 is 1-2 GW etc, and 11 actually means greater than 10GW.
alastairnelson.webplus.net/chart.html
As seen on the graph wind has over 1000 hours producing less than 1 GW and over another 1000 hours producing between 1 and 2 GW. Most of the electricity was produced by coal; 4,000 hours over 10 GW and CCGT (Combined cycle gas) 2,000 hours over 10 GW
The lowest amount wind produced was in June when it managed 19 MW (0.019 GW) during a period of high demand of 50 GW. - around 0.04%
If it takes 4869 turbines to produce an average of 5.4% on a demand of 37.7 GW, how many turbines will it take to produce all the electricity we require on a period of high demand? Note that often the periods of really cold weather co-incide with times when there is little wind. By a very rough 'Guestimate' it could be in the region of 100,000 to 200,000 turbines. Even then there will be many periods when there will still be little wind and very little production. Conversly there will be periods when the wind blows strongly and these wind turbines will produce a massive over capacity and have to be switched off because there will be no market for excess electricity.
Wind is probably the most inefficient and expensive means of electric production ever thought of. Even with 200,000 turbines there will still need to be fossil fuel back up to keep the lights on.
Most turbines these days cost around £1.25M to £2M so we are taling of around £400,000 million (and these will need replacing every 15-25 years.
How many people are actually stupid enough to think that wind is a suitable medium for electric production?
I have put a chart of the main electric generating sources on my web-site. The X-axis is amount of GW produced by the source, and the Y-axis is the total number of hours at each level. Figures on X-Axis is 1 (up to 1 GW), 2 is 1-2 GW etc, and 11 actually means greater than 10GW.
alastairnelson.webplus.net/chart.html
As seen on the graph wind has over 1000 hours producing less than 1 GW and over another 1000 hours producing between 1 and 2 GW. Most of the electricity was produced by coal; 4,000 hours over 10 GW and CCGT (Combined cycle gas) 2,000 hours over 10 GW
