As a free-standing, reliable, and stable source of energy, wind power is totally inadequate; even as a secondary, supportive source, it has serious limitations. Due to the character of wind, power is not produced in a steady stream over a long period but in a succession of spikes between zero and full power. The fluctuation makes reliable management of the power grid very risky. Moreover, wind power generation delivers only a modest fraction (20% to 25%) of the installed power capacity. For example, a 150-MW wind farm planned for the Gulf of Mexico outside Galveston, Texas, at a cost of $310 million would realistically deliver at an average rate of 30 MW. This will provide power for less than one extra minute per day for the state. To keep up with a 1.5% annual increase in electrical usage in Texas, one would have to build about 25 of these wind farms every year. So one 150-MW wind farm is small potatoes for Texas’s electrical supply.
Germany is half the size of Texas but has more than twice the installed wind power capacity of the entire US, namely 16 400 MW, producing 4.9% of Germany’s electricity (1.25% of its total energy). The problems created by the large investment Germany has made in wind power are discussed in the Wind Report 2005 1 from E.ON Netz, Germany’s second largest electrical utility. The report concluded that the possibility of wind energy replacing conventional energy sources is quite limited. For instance, the country’s 16 400 MW wind-energy system can actually only contribute 8% of its output capacity (1312 MW) as secure power production. So an extra, conventional generating capacity of about 90% of the wind capacity has to be added to the grid as backup, which would require an enormous additional investment.
The report also stated that the feed-in capacity for wind energy can change often and dramatically. “On Christmas Eve 2004, wind production in Germany fell 4000 MW in 10 hours, representing the capacity of eight 500 MW coal-fired power plants! This created an enormous challenge for the operators of the grid and it could easily have led to a vast blackout in central Europe.”
For people thinking “the more wind energy the better,” Wind Report 2005 should be required reading.
