It's great......when the wind blows. In the UK we have about 15GW of installed wind generating capacity, but it's very rarely fully utilized. The variability means it's balanced out by other sources mostly gas powered Combined cycle turbines. During summer there have been weeks where wind and solar were negligible and gas was providing nearly 60% of the electricity generated. Nuclear is reliable, but we only have about 5GW of capacity, we can import another 6GW from Europe and other sources such as biomass and hydro are about 3GW. There's higher wind capacity utilisation in Winter but there are still days when it's very still and we have to rely on fossil fuels. French nuclear and British gas turbines help to balance out demand across Europe when the winds are still, but it's variability is a real issue. Would more installed capacity help?
More wind energy was installed in 2020 than any other energy source
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Re: More wind energy was installed in 2020 than any other energy source
#92What I’m more worry about those Renewables stuff is their ressource footprint , when you look at how much « rare earth » « composite » material is needed to build just one its seems like a nonsense to use wind their are many documentaries on this topic. Today the vast majority of those turbines are not recycled. On top of that wind being intermittent you need gas power plant to provide. France power provider RTE esti…
So you're also being downvoted for raising a good question.
Nuclear is much greener that renewables, nuclear emits less CO2 per watt.
Building a wind turbine on a large floor of concrete, building batteries and solar panels all the material that comes with it...
Fossil fuel benefits from renewables.
Re: More wind energy was installed in 2020 than any other energy source
#93What I’m more worry about those Renewables stuff is their ressource footprint , when you look at how much « rare earth » « composite » material is needed to build just one its seems like a nonsense to use wind their are many documentaries on this topic. Today the vast majority of those turbines are not recycled. On top of that wind being intermittent you need gas power plant to provide. France power provider RTE esti…
Wind turbines take less than a year to become CO2 neutral - generating enough electricity to offset the embodied CO2 used to produce, transport and construct the turbine. https://www.newscientist.com/lastword/mg24332461-400-what-is... This will likely go down over time though, as steel and concrete (which are both very much recyclable today) are big parts of wind turbines so as those become "greener" so will the wind…
You mean comparing the CO2 emitted by gas or coal?
Re: More wind energy was installed in 2020 than any other energy source
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Today the vast majority of those turbines are not recycled. I really doubt this is true in any meaningful sense. First of all, I'd expect the majority of all turbines ever produced to still be in their useful service life. Second, many of the materials are valuable as scrap. It would be blatantly idiotic to just destroy and bury these materials, even if your goal is to spite environmentalists. Third, even the unsub…
You would be very wrong unfortunately. There’s currently no way to recycle or reuse the blades and it’s a big problem that nobody seems to care about. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-02-05/wind-turb... “Companies are searching for ways to deal with the tens of thousands of blades that have reached the end of their lives.” In Sweden we are making wind power company owners very rich with heavily subsidies,…
>wind power is far from cost effective and at least here it’s not even close to covering its own.
This is certainly not universally true...for example: https://www.government.nl/latest/news/2019/07/10/vattenfall-...
Re: More wind energy was installed in 2020 than any other energy source
#95How much fossil fuel consumption was reduced as a result?
In the US, there was more coal power generation in 2021 than 2020 because 2020 was an abormally low year of power consumption. If we skip over the pandemic, there was less electricty generated from coal in 2021 than 2019.
Coal in the US has been in long-term decline since around 2008. Natural gas seems to be holding fairly stable at the moment.
Depending on source, it looks like the US retired some 9 to 11 GW of coal power plants in 2020. However, China is attempting an energy-intensive recovery from the pandemic and put 38 GW of coal plants into operation in 2020.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-coal/chinas-new-coa...
https://www.spglobal.com/platts/en/market-insights/latest-ne...
Re: More wind energy was installed in 2020 than any other energy source
#96How much fossil fuel consumption was reduced as a result?
Almost as much probably. Basically wind and solar deployments currently take up the market growth and things like coal and oil plants as they are being retired. Of course gas plant share is also still growing, although at an increasingly lower pace. Proportionally, coal has already been pretty much wiped out relative to say five years ago in a lot of places. Most remaining plants have closure dates looming over them in the not so distant future.
Re: More wind energy was installed in 2020 than any other energy source
#97It's great......when the wind blows. In the UK we have about 15GW of installed wind generating capacity, but it's very rarely fully utilized. The variability means it's balanced out by other sources mostly gas powered Combined cycle turbines. During summer there have been weeks where wind and solar were negligible and gas was providing nearly 60% of the electricity generated. Nuclear is reliable, but we only have abo…
Sadly, the help is rather limited. All of Europe often shares the same environmental conditions. Energy storage is the only real solution.
Re: More wind energy was installed in 2020 than any other energy source
#98What I’m more worry about those Renewables stuff is their ressource footprint , when you look at how much « rare earth » « composite » material is needed to build just one its seems like a nonsense to use wind their are many documentaries on this topic. Today the vast majority of those turbines are not recycled. On top of that wind being intermittent you need gas power plant to provide. France power provider RTE esti…
Fossil fuel exhaust in the atmosphere? good
Inert wind turbines in the ground? bad
Re: More wind energy was installed in 2020 than any other energy source
#99False and misleading.
First, it only refers to the US, while the headline makes no such qualification.
Second, this refers only to electricity generation, which is roughly 25% of US energy use, or 20% if you include energy embedded in imports, mostly fueled by fossil fuels in China.
Third, this refers only to gros capacity. For those who have been asleep, the effective energy capacity is far lower for renewables than for stable power sources due to intermittency.
inb4 By referring to facts you have shown you are clearly on the wrong team.
Re: More wind energy was installed in 2020 than any other energy source
#100It's great......when the wind blows. In the UK we have about 15GW of installed wind generating capacity, but it's very rarely fully utilized. The variability means it's balanced out by other sources mostly gas powered Combined cycle turbines. During summer there have been weeks where wind and solar were negligible and gas was providing nearly 60% of the electricity generated. Nuclear is reliable, but we only have abo…
> Would more installed capacity help?
Yes, as well as country interconnects so that excess wind generation in one region can be distributed elsewhere.