Thread: Wind power from Germany. Helps French avoid freezing in the dark.

Not a bad result for much maligned wind power.

Renewables Helped France Avoid Freezing in the Dark « Climate Denial Crock of the Week

Dear adelady. Why shouldn't the French be allowed to freeze in the dark? westwind.

I didn't care for the story and think it fails to represent the situation very well.

Being able to help out when the wind is blowing across German really isn't of much surprise.
It also didn't' mention that German restarted five of it's nuclear reactors, most likely because it's already had trouble keeping up with its unreliable sources early in the winter.
Cold snap forces Germany to restart nuclear reactors: report < German news | Expatica Germany
At least they linked to the story about the restarts below though.

It's a good article as an example of how Europe can shunt power around the continent to meet demands.

Yeah. I like it just as a sign of what you can do if you get

a) the power mix right
b) a sophisticated grid for transfer

which leads to

c) put your heads together!
or someone should knock some heads together to prevent this kind of nonsense. Czech TSO warns electricity grid overloads spiked in 2011

Finding better, maybe any, ways and means for power storage - no matter how ' inefficient' the storage is to start with, it's gotta be better than blowing up the neighbours' grids.
Finding appropriate mechanisms for automated power shedding. Lighting up streets during daylight or normally dark early hours. Switching airconditioning on overnight or early morning in commercial buildings. The list is probably endless.

Giving the power away when there's a surplus which might develop a market for people recharging their electric cars, scooters, or the box of rocks or water heat storage in their basement.

box of rocks or water heat storage in their basement

.
Could be a way to make public transport more appealing in cold weather. Large scale installations like this could make some of those drafty waiting areas and departure halls just a bit more bearable.

The main moral I draw from the story is that France and Germany need more nuclear power stations.

While they are at it, we could do with one here in New Zealand, and decommission that monstrosity known as the Huntly coal burning power station.

Come to think of it, Australia could ..........

Power company always produce surplus. This is to cater for unexpected demands, but this also mean alot of waste if not used (because they don't have storage facility). Every year energy company will evaluate their output margin (adjusting as necessary), if too much surpluss will cost them too much money; if too low then it will hamper industrial growth that year.

If energy can be stored then it will significantly increase efficiency. Alot can be saved. eg: they recently introduce smart metering (smart energy grid) to allow them to poll energy usage remotely at real-time; this allow efficient energy production and thus save more and more money!

Cough--cough--splutter, yeah you'r right skeptic. westwind.

Originally Posted by msafwan

If energy can be stored then it will significantly increase efficiency. Alot can be saved. eg: they recently introduce smart metering (smart energy grid) to allow them to poll energy usage remotely at real-time; this allow efficient energy production and thus save more and more money!

There is a project in Europe looking at the possibility of using electric cars (when they are plugged in to charge) as temporary storage/sources of power to smooth out supply and demand. Obviously it requires a large enough number of electric cars in order for it to work.

The best energy density for an electric vehicle battery that I could find here is 120 watt-hr/kg.
Electric vehicle battery - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A large power plant generates 1000 megawatts. To store the power of 1 hour of genertating plant production therefore would require
10^9/120=8.3 million kilograms. That's a lot of batteries.

The best energy density for an electric vehicle battery that I could find here is 120 watt-hr/kg.
Electric vehicle battery - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A large power plant generates 1000 megawatts. To store the power of 1 hour of genertating plant production therefore would require
10^9/120=8.3 million kilograms. That's a lot of batteries

So it sounds like it wouldn't take that big a windpower investment to handle a country's worth of electric vehicles.

Originally Posted by iceaura

The best energy density for an electric vehicle battery that I could find here is 120 watt-hr/kg.
Electric vehicle battery - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A large power plant generates 1000 megawatts. To store the power of 1 hour of genertating plant production therefore would require
10^9/120=8.3 million kilograms. That's a lot of batteries

So it sounds like it wouldn't take that big a windpower investment to handle a country's worth of electric vehicles.

I guess that's one way of looking at it, if you're willing to park the car when the wind dies down.

I think that germans are taking over the world again