Dumping excess energy into something like Bitcoin mining is an interesting way to spend excess green energy that would otherwise fizzle. Mining Bitcoin is sort of ideal for this type of situation because it doesn't matter the frequency/time/duration for which you mine Bitcoin, and the coins can be quickly liquidated to recapture revenue.
The cost of turning down wind turbines in Britain
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Re: The cost of turning down wind turbines in Britain
#12Do they shut down whole production? It looks like the setup is lacking simple PID with slowing down the turbines (by rotating blades of course) or shutting down only part of it?
Maybe I lack some of the context here, but that's the first thought.
Re: The cost of turning down wind turbines in Britain
#13Probably the simplest solution is just to not pay for curtailment. If you build your wind farm in Scotland then you just have to accept that you aren't connecting it to an "infinite demand" grid. I think people have also suggested paying for electricity based on the location in the UK but the grid financial system is already so insanely complicated due to Thatcher's energy privatisation that making it even more compl…
The Octopus energy guy Greg Jackson has come out swinging for regional pricing but the incentives are terrible given fair chunks of the country just aren't suitable for wind and a lot of the places that are are less densely populated and so it affects people less there too.
Re: The cost of turning down wind turbines in Britain
#14A family member lives on the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. There is a community trust on one of the islands which has built wind turbines. However it took about 2 years before they were certified and connected up to the grid, and rather disappointingly it hasn't made local prices cheaper. The electricity is sold to the grid and that money goes to the community trust. Which seems bureaucratic? I wish we could have decen…
It is illegal to sell electricity directly to someone else. To sell electricity you need to be licensed as an energy supplier.
So currently it is illegal to, for instance, sell your excess wind or solar electricity to your neighbour. You have to sell it to the grid and it goes into the "common pool".
Re: The cost of turning down wind turbines in Britain
#15A family member lives on the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. There is a community trust on one of the islands which has built wind turbines. However it took about 2 years before they were certified and connected up to the grid, and rather disappointingly it hasn't made local prices cheaper. The electricity is sold to the grid and that money goes to the community trust. Which seems bureaucratic? I wish we could have decen…
Wind turbines are not base load, so they do not lower electricity prices.
Re: The cost of turning down wind turbines in Britain
#16Norway already have this kind of solution where a companies on the same land can register to the grid companies, and the production and consumtion within the same messurement intervals is not counted as selling to the grid. This way you can use the public grid for your own "internal" transfer.
It looks like UK, like many other countries, already have grid that can't cope with casual usage and transferring power from farms to users. Adding "renting" of grid sound like it could make it even worse (if possible).
Re: The cost of turning down wind turbines in Britain
#17Dumping excess energy into something like Bitcoin mining is an interesting way to spend excess green energy that would otherwise fizzle. Mining Bitcoin is sort of ideal for this type of situation because it doesn't matter the frequency/time/duration for which you mine Bitcoin, and the coins can be quickly liquidated to recapture revenue.
And from the heat of bitcoin mining you could heat homes.
Re: The cost of turning down wind turbines in Britain
#18Multiple transmission network upgrades are planned to reduce excessive curtailment: https://www.nationalgrid.com/the-great-grid-upgrade/where-it...
Those 4 "Eastern Green Link" projects look interesting - pretty sensible given how close most places in the UK are to the sea to go for subsea cables. Fewer problems with planning permission as well...
Re: The cost of turning down wind turbines in Britain
#19Probably the simplest solution is just to not pay for curtailment. If you build your wind farm in Scotland then you just have to accept that you aren't connecting it to an "infinite demand" grid. I think people have also suggested paying for electricity based on the location in the UK but the grid financial system is already so insanely complicated due to Thatcher's energy privatisation that making it even more compl…
The Octopus energy guy Greg Jackson has come out swinging for regional pricing but the incentives are terrible given fair chunks of the country just aren't suitable for wind and a lot of the places that are are less densely populated and so it affects people less there too.
We're a windy island surrounded by sea - which seems to be pretty ideal for wind generation going by the number of huge projects underway?
Re: The cost of turning down wind turbines in Britain
#20Germany pays about the same each year: Wind is turned off, but the investors get their guaranteed profit from the tax payer. Meanwhile wind is aggresively expanded. They even go so far to now build wind in the south of Germany and then offset the lower average wind speed by increasing subsidies...