Fast Fission Podcast #16 – mp3 file
Renewable energy supporters were spreading the word today that this past Sunday wind energy in Spain produced 53% of the country’s electrical demand.
The Spanish wind power industry broke a record on Sunday morning, when turbines nationwide met 53% of the nation’s demand for electricity with production of around 10,170 megawatts (MW), according to La Asociacion Empresarial Eolica (AEE), the Spanish wind industry alliance.
This was certainly an achievement, but before we get too excited we need to read carefully and consider the situation. This was an intermittent peak in wind energy output that happened to achieve 53% of the electricity demand when the total demand was very low. This occurred during a 5 ½ hour window in the early morning hours of a Sunday morning in November. Everyone was asleep, there virtually no lighting load, no cooking, few factories were running, no air conditioning, and probably very little heat. As a result, total demand was relatively low.
Before we declare renewables a resounding success, take a look at a more telling statistic: the 11.5% overall contribution of wind to Spain’s grid during all of 2008. That means that day in and day out 88.5% of Spain’s electricity came from nuclear, gas, oil, and coal. Of that, the only carbon-free source was nuclear.
#1 by ondrejch on November 12, 2009 - 11:31 PM
Here is a great comment which also includes a more typical figure, which demonstrates where does the vast amount of electricity come from in less lucky days (methane burning surprisingly):
http://uvdiv.blogspot.com/2009/11/spanish-wind-power-exposed.html
#2 by Simon Filiatrault on November 13, 2009 - 10:43 AM
John,
What is it with people pushing those low density, intermittent energy source and their cherry picking of the data?
Why are the afraid of the real data?
This look like a religious belief to me based on the assumption that only low density energies are “safe”.
#3 by Kirk Sorensen on November 13, 2009 - 11:52 AM
Simon, they are safe! (if you’re a fossil fuel producer worried about competition in the energy market)