[R-G] No technical barriers for large-scale integration of wind power - Rudolf Rechsteiner

[Richard Menec]

From: "Rudolf Rechsteiner" <rechsteiner at rechsteiner-basel.ch>
Subject: No technical barriers for large-scale integration of wind power

Personally I believe that wind power will be the bulk power of the future
with a market share of more than 50%. It is interesting that the
International Energy Agency - which normally is overwhelmingly hostile to
renewables in its perceptions (and denial of peak oil) is finding out now
that wind power integration is not such a big problem as perceived before.

No technical barriers for large-scale integration of wind power in the
european electricity grids, says IEA study

The International Energy Agency (IEA) investigates whether there are
technical limits to the market penetration of renewable energy technologies,
and wind more specifically. According to the IEA study, "the extent to which
the intermittency of natural resources will become a barrier to renewables
is mainly a question of economics and market organisation". No technical
barriers for large-scale integration of wind power in the european
electricity grids, says IEA study

you can find the whole report here:

http://www.ewea.org/documents/050714_IEA_Report_on_variability.pdf

and the EWEA press release here:

http://www.ewea.org/documents/050927_IEA_report.pdf

There are some very interesting remarks on electricity storage in the IEA
Paper:

From a policy point of view, it has to be analysed which are the least-cost
options system-wide in each case and furthermore, whether market
participants are facing the right
incentive structure to exploit those opportunities. The list of options
presented below should not
be considered exhaustive nor should it be understood as an attempt to
pre-empt any market decisions.
It serves as a reference to the most-discussed resources at current
available technology.

The six main options currently discussed are:

� power plants providing operational and capacity reserve;

� electricity storage;

� interconnection with other grid systems;

� distributed generation;

� demand-side response;

� curtailment of intermittent technology.


Hydro pump storage and compresed air storage are rated at 75-85 percent
efficiency!

And you find the lowest value of all efficiencies for hydrogen - no surprise
for me!


See page 27:
Various storage technologies and typical technical performance

Storage technology Typical round-trip efficiency (in %)

Pumped-hydro station ~80

Compressed air storage ~75

Flywheel ~90

Conventional batteries ~50 -

Flow battery ~70

Hydrogen fuel cell ~40


Table 3: storage technologies and typical technical performance
Storage technology Typical capacity

Pumped-hydro station  >100 MW - >1000 MW

Compressed air storage >50 MW - >100 MW

Flywheel >1 kW - >50 kW

Conventional batteries  ~90 >1kW - >10 MW

Flow battery ~15MW

Hydrogen fuel cell  >50 kW - >1 MW


Just do the combination of low cost wind and low cost storage - and you get
an abundant, reliable and emission free energy system in any place of the
world!
- Rudolf Rechsteiner

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Rudolf Rechsteiner MP

4056 Basel, Schweiz/Switzerland


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