There is one way this could make economic sense: if you can buy power much cheaper than the cost of coal, by buying it at times when the renewable sources (or nuke plants run continually at optimal load) are producing an excess. But the problem is, wind and solar sources are not currently making power much more cheaply than coal plants. They also have huge capital investments to pay off. In the case of solar panels, it is questionable whether all the electricity produced in the 20 or 30 year lifetime of the panels is worth the initial investment, unless it can be sold at a premium rather than at a discount from fossil-fuel-derived power. Wind turbines and movable-mirror steam solar plants are somewhat less expensive (but definitely more expensive than fossil-fuel plants), but these are also high-maintenance.

Then the very poorest apply for and get a subsidy which requires oversight by government workers. So civil servants get more benefit from forced alternative energy than anyone else.

Don’t ask me for a solution. We need alternative energy eventually and until it costs less than fossil or nuclear we are going to pay. Pay in money and regulation and aggravation.

I don’t want to see all those GD windmills so I hope solar prevails.

Someone mentions underground cavities. There is some potential to store unused wind power as compressed air. But in reality there should be little or no unused wind or solar power. Both should be consumed first and leave fossil and hydro as the last resort.

I might mention that attempts to store power as compressed air have not be very successful for over a century. There is a lot of heat in air and you can’t simply pump it to high pressure underground. Eventually that will weaken or even melt stone. I suppose there are professions which deal with such problems, I’ll call them engineers.

Jon Spencer and others point to water as the storage medium. I think it is a better bet than air.

The only reason the windfarms exist is the tax subsidy which is based on selling KWH. No sales, no subsidy. Thus they can pay the grid to take the KWH and still be better off than shutting down.

http://www.ncpa.org/studies/renew/renew2c.html

“Get rid of it” ?? Spoken as if, when the wind blows, the blades turn and electricity is generated uncontrollably. I am at a loss to understand why wind turbines can not be feathered/stopped and their generators can not be disconnected electrically from the distribution system. All electrical generators are provided with big switches (breakers). All “drivers” i.e. windmills, gas/air/steam/water turbines, diesel/gasoline engines can be stopped or de-coupled from the generator.

@Jon: It takes energy to compress air and a lot of energy is lost as heat. Also an air turbine runs best at constant inlet pressure, so more energy is lost thru pressure regulation. That system is likely to be costly and inefficient.

The only air-turbine I’ve ever seen is the last-resort RAT (ram-air turbine) on the British Vulcan Bomber. If all 4 engines fail, and the Rover APU (auxiliary power unit) won’t start, the crew pulls a lever to drop the RAT into the airstream. If they don’t, the PFCs (electric-powered flying controls) stop working – very bad news!

T.C.

Bill Harrison, the current President of ASHRAE, has chosen maintenance as his theme or emphasis for 2008-2009. This is an excellent choice and should not go unheeded. Excellent equipment, improperly maintained, is of little value to us.