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197 comments on Why wind power works in Denmark

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AlanfromBigEasy on September 1, 2006 - 10:55am

One poster at the HydroVision conference was from the Bath Pumped Storage Plant. A rework had increased the cycle efficiency from just under 80% to just over 80%, and they were proud of the result.

http://www.dom.com/about/stations/hydro/bath.jsp

Pumped air is limited to ~60% efficiency due to adiabatic heating/coolling.

Wind & hydro are a VERY good match. Hydro can be dam (run-of-river not so good) or pumped storage (ideal).

New Zealand can accept "at least" 35% wind energy because they are half hydro. Once they get close to 35%, they will study the issue more.

An interesting note. Hydro is twice as variable as wind on an annual basis (per speaker at HydroVision). "Wind droughts" are rare.

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Starvid on September 1, 2006 - 11:02am

But water can be saved behind the dams in the vast reserves from year to year. Wind can't.

Except in the form of reduced water consumption in the dams, of course.

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Euan Mearns on September 1, 2006 - 11:16am

Thanks Alan.

New Zealand can accept "at least" 35% wind energy because they are half hydro. Once they get close to 35%, they will study the issue more.

Does that mean that with a wind-hydro balancing system that you can install up to 70% of your hydro capacity as wind?

Note your point about droughts - its just that here in Scotland we've never had any direct experience of drought. Though in Norway, lesser snow falls in recent winters have left many magazines half empty - skiing across those in winter can be interesting with massive tangles of ice blocks along the shores.

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tomgraywind on September 8, 2006 - 11:59pm

Does that mean that with a wind-hydro balancing system that you can install up to 70% of your hydro capacity as wind?

Sounds plausible to me. You would also need good transmission linking the whole system.

Regards,
Thomas O. Gray
American Wind Energy Association
www.awea.org
www.ifnotwind.org

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