Wind Energy Bumps Into Power Grid’s Limits - Series - NYTimes.com
This article is from last week, but it's an interesting look at the problems that the use of wind farms cause for the power grid in the US. It's not clear to me what sort of problem this may represent in Australia, as I think we have a pretty co-operative inter State grid system now, don't we?
I still don't like the idea of widespread use of windmills. I don't care what supporters say, the sight of tens of them on a horizon bothers me as an unnecessary visual intrusion on nature. Plans to put them all out of sight at sea seem a better prospect, and would avoid the bat killing issue which I assume would be a major problem in many parts of Australia. (Not to mention that flying foxes are believed to be spreading the deadly Hendra virus, so handling dead ones is not a good idea.)
As for solar energy, long time readers will remember that I like the look of the Infinia corporation's solar stirling engine. It still seems to be building up to big scale manufacturing, but the pace (as with many renewable energy ideas) seems very slow.
I see recently that another solar stirling power company (Stirling Energy Systems) has applied to build a full scale power station using 30,000 dishes in the California desert! It will be very interesting to see if this goes ahead, and can compete well with other forms of solar thermal.
One issue is that other types of solar thermal (the ones that heat fluid in a pipe) have a more direct way of getting some overnight energy storage (eg using melted salts, etc.) I am not sure if SES has an idea for overnight power.
Finally, how is the South African demonstration pebble bed reactor going? Still progressing, it seems, but again, there seems little sense of urgency about such projects.
I positively like the look of wind farms, always have. I like seeing machinery work, it's exciting and interesting, and appeals to both the scientific and artistic parts of my brain.
ReplyDeleteI think a lot of environmentally-minded folk have come to subconsciously expect technology to work like magic. The machinery isn't what's desired, just the end result (the heat, light, and energy.) You get a lot of people nowadays talking about how 'ugly' power stations are, how they are not in keeping with the modern image of an area. Coal power stations are often referred to as 'belching out' 'poison'. In at least some cases, this may be because it offends against this subconscious expectation of technology to be like a kind of magic.
Then again, maybe I'm fantastically wrong here.
Tim, my point has always been that at least with a coal fired power station (or even a massive solar one) it at least keeps its visual intrusiveness to one area. I am not so concerned about one windmill here or there, but you see quite a lot of photos where they are just all over the place, and I find that ugly.
ReplyDeleteWell I don't mind. But of course lack of intrusiveness is a selling point for many people, and nuclear energy is good for this too. (Maybe more so than coal-fired plants, in fact.) And of course it avoids killing bats/birds/wildlife, and massive land clearance and setting aside large tracts of land for the use of wind power.
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