Adding wind power allows utilities to back off increasingly expensive fossil fuel generation.
Affordable
Today, the price of electricity generated from wind
power is comparable with the cost of electricity generated from new
coal plants, given the rising costs of construction materials and fuel.
Utilities are investing heavily in wind power to provide a hedge
against the increasing costs of fossil fuels.
New wind power is indeed more expensive than electricity generated from
depreciated fossil fuel plants that were built a generation ago.
However, new wind is competitive with new coal, nuclear, and natural
gas.
Reliable
Wind is a variable source of electricity. This means that it ebbs and flows over the course of a day. When the wind is blowing, then the renewable energy source can be used instead of fossil fuels.
As one farmer said to CEP, “When it rains we use what nature gives us. When there’s no rain, we irrigate to make up the difference. Wind follows the same principle.”
Wind is no less reliable than traditional power generation. All energy sources are intermittent to some degree. No power source is 100% reliable.
Reliability is measured across entire grids, not by one specific power source. What matters is how the different power sources work together to balance the grid. This occurs by maintaining reserves to back up both wind and fossil fuel generation.
Any power plant can shut down suddenly and unexpectedly. In Texas in 2007, the wind slowed just as 1,000 megawatts of scheduled coal power did not make it to the grid. Interruptible commercial producers did lose power.
The more wind farms that a regional grid has (up to a certain limit – see below), the more reliable the power source becomes. Wind sources that are geographically diverse balance the variability. Also, each wind farm has several turbines.
Nameplate capacity measures the energy that a facility could generate if it worked 100% of the time (which no energy source actually does). Most utility scale wind farms in Kansas have nameplate capacities of around 100 megawatts or more.
Capacity factor describes the percentage of time that an energy source actually produces electricity. Wind farms in Kansas tend to have high capacity factors for wind, some over 40%. The average capacity factor of a nuclear power plant is around 90%. Age of facility, time needed for upgrades, etc., all affect capacity factors.
Energy is what we actually use, and it is measured in kilowatt hours (kWh). Wind energy allows utilities to back down (although not eliminate) use of high-priced or volatile fossil fuels.
Safe
Studies by National Renewable Energy Labs (NREL) and the Department of Energy (DOE) show that wind can safely, reliably, and economically provide up to 20% of the energy on the current U.S. grid. This represents low to moderate penetration.
New wind power installations do not need to be backed up with equal amounts of new power from fossil fuels.
Wind power does change traditional grid management practices, which were based on electrical generation from fossil fuels. In recent years, a lot of wind has come on the grid quickly. This growth is outpacing the training and continuing education of many grid personnel.
When winds decrease, they tend to ramp down slowly over an hour or so. If grid operators are trained in wind forecasting, then they can ready a source of dispatchable power from their operating reserves to fill in the gaps. Dispatchable power is power that can be generated at will, such as natural gas.
A note on grid integration: The age and stability of the grid does vary widely across the United States – and the grid in rural areas is often vulnerable and stretched. Of course, these are the wind-rich areas that need to come online.
Also, bringing utility wind on to transmission lines is a different issue than bringing small wind on to distribution lines.
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