Anyone got institutional access to Elsevier journals?
This paper looks most interesting:
Written by an independent consultancy and funded by the Renewable Energy Foundation, the report says backup electricity plants will be needed to meet demand during calm conditions.
…
Published online in the journal Energy Policy, the study confirms concerns among critics that wind around Britain is too volatile to provide reliable energy.
Here\’s the money shot:
At 6pm on February 2 2006 – the point of peak electricity demand for the whole year – wind farms would have been unable to provide any power at all, researchers found.
So far it seems that the thrust of the report is that wind farms simply won\’t work. At a cost of £100 billion.
Update, got it, ta Milo!
Brown is just loading eco-wibble commitments on to the next Tory government so when the Tories cancel these projects, as they will have too, Labour can crow that they are greener.
It’s not just that the wind is unreliable – it also provides a pretty dilute form of energy, thus always needing excesive capital expenditure. Both those reasons justified people looking at wave power back in the early 70s – and perhaps continuing to look at it now.
Wind only works with a smart grid that enables consumption of energy to vary with availability (and cost). So everyones fridge will run on wind energy as much as possible. So I have read.
The question is how much of our energy is consumed by devices that can switch on/off with electricty prices?
My nominee for this year’s No Fecal Matter, Sherlock Award:
“…the report says backup electricity plants will be needed to meet demand during calm conditions.”