A Bullish View of Wind Power Out West

[RedEarth]

Wind energy has plenty going for it: it is clean, unlimited in supply and the most economical source of renewable power. Its clearest drawback is unreliability: sometimes the wind just does not blow.

But that intermittency – long considered a major shortcoming – may have little impact on the potential for wind to power much of the electric grid in the western United States, according to a new study by the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Lab.

The study, released in late May, found that the power grid for five western states – Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Wyoming – could operate on as much as 30 percent wind and 5 percent solar without the construction of extensive new infrastructure.

“If key changes can be made to standard operating procedures, our research shows that large amounts of wind and solar can be incorporated onto the grid without a lot of backup generation,” Dr. Debra Lew, project manager for the study, said in a statement.

http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/01/a-sanguine-view-of-wind-power-out-west/

[kristopher]

1. Offshore wind enables the same thing on the east coast.

The offshore wind resource on the relatively shallow continental shelf off the east coast is better than what exists out west and it is closer to some of the heaviest electric demand in the country.


Full paper behind this graph is available for download from the National Academy of Sciences at this link:
Electric power from offshore wind via synoptic-scale interconnection (Kempton etal)
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2010/03/29/0909075107.abstract





Download for regional information on moving to 100% renewable energy
http://www.civilsocietyinstitute.org/media/pdfs/Beyond%20BAU%205-11-10.pdf

[SkyDaddy7]

2. But what about a catastrophic...

WIND SPILL?

YES, I am all for wind energy...I just wish we Bush & his so-called fiscally conservative Republicans had not robbed us of at least 3 TRILLION DOLLARS between their tax cuts for the wealthy & the Iraq War...Otherwise we could begin to spend a lot on Smart Grid technology so that wind and solar could be piped around the entire country regardless of where it is generated. Oh well?!?!