Wind farms produced 'practically no electricity' during Britain's cold snap

[Jam]

Fighting against windmills--StarvingSteve gotta love this ;).
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/n...cold-snap.html

[...] the shortfall in power generated by wind during cold snaps seriously undermined the Government's pledge on Friday to build nine major new wind "super farms" by 2020. "If we had this 30 gigawatts of wind power, it wouldn't have contributed anything of any significance this winter," he said. "The current cold snap is a warning that our power generation and gas supplies are under strain and it is getting worse."
Coal stations are currently used as back-up generation when there is a surge in demand for gas and the wind does not blow – which both tend to happen during cold weather.
However, increased dependence on wind farms will coincide with a European Union directive shutting down Britain's dirtiest coal and oil fired power stations.
The UK has committed to switching off these stations by 2015, leaving it uniquely vulnerable to gas shortages and the intermittency of wind farms.
[...]
Andrew Horstead, a risk analyst for energy consultant Utilyx, said current plans to build 30 gigawatts of wind farms could have serious consequences for the security of the UK's energy supply in harsh weather conditions.
"This week's surge in demand for energy in response to the cold weather raises serious concerns about the UK's increased reliance on wind power," he said.

[c1ue]

Re: Wind farms produced 'practically no electricity' during Britain's cold snap

Don't forget the other part of this story:

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/21/20100109...g-6323e80.html

Gas supply reassurance after warning

Saturday, January 9 10:07 pm


National Grid has issued a third gas balancing alert in a week as demand continues to run at high levels in the freezing weather conditions.

Gas supply reassurance after warning

The move came as Prime Minister Gordon Brown insisted that supplies of gas were not running out despite recent record levels of demand.
A spokeswoman for the Grid said the alert was a signal to the market which had already responded to make up a shortfall in gas flow to the UK and that there was no shortage.
"For us, it is business as normal," she said. "When the system is running at peak demand, and supplies drop off, for whatever reason, we issue this as a signal to the market, and ask it to respond. The forecast (for Saturday) was that we would need 441 million cubic metres, and there was a shortfall of 50 million cubic metres, possibly for technical reasons - the cause has not been disclosed.
"Suppliers of liquefied natural gas have made up the shortfall. The alert will last until 6am on Sunday when we expect it to be lifted. There is no shortage of gas and the system is working well."
She said only one alert had been issued before this week since the system came in three years ago, but noted that the winters had not been as cold as this current spell.

Followed then by:

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/to...cle6983614.ece

From Times Online

January 11, 2010

National Grid issues fourth gas shortage alert

Robert Lindsay

National Grid today issued its fourth gas shortage alert so far this year, blaming a sharp drop in the supply of gas from a giant field off Norway.
Until the cold snap in the past two weeks, National Grid, which operates Britain’s gas network, had issued only one alert, in March 2006.
The operator gave the warning today after Shell stopped production at Ormen Lange, its main Norwegian Sea field, which, at full capacity, is expected to supply Britain with up to a fifth of its gas.
Today Shell blamed bad weather on the closure, which occurred on Saturday, and said that it did not yet know when production would resume.

Peak Natural Gas? ;)

[Chris]

Re: Wind farms produced 'practically no electricity' during Britain's cold snap

Government peaked in the UK in 1990. Its been exponential decline ever since.

[chr5648]

Re: Wind farms produced 'practically no electricity' during Britain's cold snap

Nothing like shooting yourself in the foot

[GRG55]

Re: Wind farms produced 'practically no electricity' during Britain's cold snap

Don't forget the other part of this story:

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/21/20100109...g-6323e80.html



Followed then by:

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/to...cle6983614.ece



Peak Natural Gas? ;)

Not a chance. Just another example of policy induced distortions. UK natural gas prices have been far more volatile than continental Europe for several years now.

One major reason is the interaction between a policy preference for wind turbines, public opposition to the transmission lines needed to bring the power from the offshore north region sources to the onshore southern England population base that uses it, unrealistic expectations of the expected output from the wind turbines which reduced the forecasted back-up power requirement [most of which comes from gas turbines], a total flip-flop by New Labour on the shutting down of the nuclear power stations, ongoing uncertainty over future carbon taxation policy, and on it goes...

There's plenty of natural gas in the world, and there is no reason for shortages in the UK, or western Europe. All that's needed is a stable and predictable policy environment. But who in their right mind is going to make a major committment to installing more fossil fuel capacity, demand or supply, in this sort of environment?

[GRG55]

Re: Wind farms produced 'practically no electricity' during Britain's cold snap

Fighting against windmills--StarvingSteve gotta love this ;).
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/n...cold-snap.html

I continue to wonder why this situation is greeted with surprise. It's been studied in Europe and the UK, is well understood, but doesn't appear to fit with the political need to have some green credentials in the policy platform I suppose.

From 2007:
http://www.itulip.com/forums/showthr...tors#post17803

From 2008:
http://www.wind-watch.org/documents/...olicy-2008.pdf

[chr5648]

Re: Wind farms produced 'practically no electricity' during Britain's cold snap

Poland has been agreeing to some pollution requirements of the EU in terms of its coal power plants. If anything they have been bending over and just taking whatever the EU tells them.

I can foresee something like this happening there in the next 10 as they get taxed and decrease coal consumption.

I advocate for the protection of the environment and conservation, but there should be a healthy balance and energy security. Many governments will be doing this under pressure from various groups. It will be interesting to watch it unfold over the next few years.