Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Renewable Energy Unintended Consequesces

The Telegraph (link here) has an excellent summary of the problems Germany is having with their wind energy system and it serves as a warning for the US and UK.

Electricity is a unique commodity. It must be used as soon as it is generated. And if there is a demand for more, that demand must be met instantaneously. In order to meet the requirement to respond to changes in electrical demand, power companies use a mix of generating systems. Large steam systems, including nuclear plants, like to have a constant load. However, the electrical load changes throughout the day and to respond to these changes, power companies must have plants that can react quickly to changes, such as as gas turbine driven generators.

The problem they are finding out in Germany is that wind turbine and solar power output can change according to the weather. Because they cannot rely upon these weather dependent systems to provide electricity when needed, they have to back them up with conventional power generation that can respond quickly. This means that the conventional units have to be running and on line - and that means they are usually running at low output most of the time. Running at low outputs means that these plants are running at low efficiency and costing more to operate.

So here's the unintended consequence: in order to have "green" energy you have to run a carbon technology plant at low efficiency to provide backup to the green system. This results in more carbon emissions and higher expense for the customer.

As the article describe, power companies in Germany are beginning to push back against the green requirements. We should pay attention to what is happening over there because they are the future of Obama's lust for green energy.

3 comments:

Ed Skinner said...

A friend of mine is a senior trouble shooter for the local power company and he once commented that as more alternative energy plants are constructed, the more they need conventional plants. What you've made clear is the fact that those conventional sources have to be not just available but, more importantly, and costly, and less cleanly ... running all the time and ready to satisfy 100% of the demand. So while "green" sources may be all the rage, it is coal, oil, gas and nuclear that must be there for those drizzly days - assuming you want your lights on, of course.

Old NFO said...

Yep, stability is NOT one of the 'good' parts of alternative energy...

Old NFO said...

Yep, stability is NOT one of the 'good' parts of alternative energy...