Spanish Wind Farm Generates Too Much Energy

Some seriously *massive* farms in West Texas. I haven’t been on I-10 in a while but I hear it looks pretty spooky (in a good way).

Windfarm development is gradually taking off in the West. The biggest that I’ve personally seen is the Smokey Hills Project in Kansas constructed by an Itallian Company named Enel. This project consists of 155 turbines which stretch for several miles next to I-70 a few miles West of Salinas. Peak production is 250 megawatts, enough to power 85,000 American homes and, equally importantly, avoid the release of 750,000 metric tons of CO2 annually.

An obvious downside of wind energy is the lack of 24/7 reliability. A recent issue of Discover magazine details plans to develop a “smart grid” to better handle wind energy.

Hi. The clain that wind is providing 50% of Spain’s energy relates to the net power leaving windfarms and accepted by the grid. Wind power must be balanced and backed up by conventional generation. The credit capacity is the amount of conventional plant that can be shut down. In Germany this varies between 4% and 8% (say 6%average) and as wind is one fifth of total power that equates to 8% / 5 = 1.6% of a saving on conventional “fuel” based generation. There is evidence that with high level of wind, the co2 saving is negative. More (not less) fuel is burned. See report for E.on Germany. My interview can be accessed on http://www.blogtalkradio.com/youngdan The head Geologist at Cardif University describes wind energy as a Scam. The Irish Acadamy of engineers say likewise. The way to measure winds contribution is to compare a system with no wind with one with wind. It is generally accepted that wind saves no fuel whatsoever when you take the fuel used in the manufacture and installation into account. The wind industry a huge lobby up and running and feed misinformiation to the media.