Windmills Overload East Europe’s Grid, Risking Blackout
businessweek.com
Windmills Overload East Europe’s Grid, Risking Blackout
1–10 of 70 posts
Re: Windmills Overload East Europe’s Grid, Risking Blackout
#2"unlike oil, which can be stored"
Oh glorious oil! This article reads like an anti-environmental hit piece (even if it is an important issue).
Re: Windmills Overload East Europe’s Grid, Risking Blackout
#3Theres gunna be big money to the company that can figure out how to store huge masses of energy for months, but no doubt thats decades away.
However, is there a more simple solution to this problem, like approaching an industry that already uses masses of energy and seeing if they can encourage them to use the energy when there is overloading? I'm unsure what that industry would be.
Surely using an overabundance of energy is a solvable problem? It seems bizarre to me that it wouldnt be.
Re: Windmills Overload East Europe’s Grid, Risking Blackout
#4It's like the writer doesn't know that windmills can be stopped. In fact, they have builtin brakes which autoengage and stops the mill when the wind becomes too powerful.
Re: Windmills Overload East Europe’s Grid, Risking Blackout
#5It's like the writer doesn't know that windmills can be stopped. In fact, they have builtin brakes which autoengage and stops the mill when the wind becomes too powerful.
Exactly. So the question is, when facing the risk of a black-out, why don't they just stop the windmills?
And in the long term, why is Europe not building more Pumped-storage hydroelectric power plants, which would solve the issue? (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pumped-storage_hydroelectricit...)
Re: Windmills Overload East Europe’s Grid, Risking Blackout
#6Theres gunna be big money to the company that can figure out how to store huge masses of energy for months, but no doubt thats decades away. However, is there a more simple solution to this problem, like approaching an industry that already uses masses of energy and seeing if they can encourage them to use the energy when there is overloading? I'm unsure what that industry would be. Surely using an overabundance of e…
I think the working theory is heating molten salt.
Re: Windmills Overload East Europe’s Grid, Risking Blackout
#7It's like the writer doesn't know that windmills can be stopped. In fact, they have builtin brakes which autoengage and stops the mill when the wind becomes too powerful.
Exactly. So the question is, when facing the risk of a black-out, why don't they just stop the windmills? And in the long term, why is Europe not building more Pumped-storage hydroelectric power plants, which would solve the issue? ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pumped-storage_hydroelectricit... )
Reading on, the problem seems to be not really specific to the windmills themselves, but to the fact that Germany is transmitting a lot of power from the North (where the windmills are) to the South (where the industry is). There is also a lot of transfer between Austria and Germany going on (with Austria's hydroelectric pumped-storage power stations essentially serving as batteries), and the Czech's are unhappy that their grid is used for this transmission for free.
Re: Windmills Overload East Europe’s Grid, Risking Blackout
#8They have to shut down coal fired power plants when the windmills produce excess power. Oh, the humanity!
Re: Windmills Overload East Europe’s Grid, Risking Blackout
#9A utility in Texas offers free power between 10 PM and 6 AM: http://cleantechnica.com/2012/05/18/txu-is-first-to-offer-fr...
Makes for some very interesting arbitrage opportunities, even if it is residential only (I assume).
Re: Windmills Overload East Europe’s Grid, Risking Blackout
#10They have to shut down coal fired power plants when the windmills produce excess power. Oh, the humanity!
I wouldn't call that a good thing. You generally can't turn off/on a coal plant in a hurry. What they're probably doing is just braking the turbines and still burning some fuel.
(Edited, realised it sounded confrontational to begin with.)