US wind power generation increases as fossil fuels decrease – a sign of times to come?
Friday, July 31st, 2009 at
4:24 am
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Natural Gas generation wasn’t down because wind power was up.
Wind is used only for baseload while natural gas is used almost exclusively for peak power.
What happened was peak power demand was down. This is because air conditioning use was down, because of the mild Summer in 2008.
See Cooling Degree Chart from the EIA, below:
http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/steo/pub/gifs/Fig23.gif
Also from EIA:
"Consumption. Cooling degree-days this summer are projected to be 5 percent lower than during the summer of 2008 (U.S. Summer Cooling Degree-Days). The reduced need for air conditioning combined with the impact of the recession on electricity sales, especially in the industrial sector, are expected to reduce total electricity consumption by 1.6 percent in 2009. Consumption is expected to return to a more normal growth rate of 1.4 percent in 2010 (U.S. Total Electricity Consumption)."
Regarding COAL versus renewable – - you’re partially correct:
"Consumption. Coal consumption in the electric power sector fell by 0.3 percent in 2008. A decline in overall electricity generation, combined with projected increases from other fossil-based (natural gas and petroleum) and renewable generation sources (hydroelectric and wind), are projected to lead to a 2.6-percent decline in electric-power-sector coal consumption. An expected increase in total electricity generation of 1.5 percent in 2010 is expected to lead to a 1.1-percent increase in electric-power-sector coal consumption. Consumption growth in the coke plant sector is expected to continue falling over the forecast period (U.S. Coal Consumption Growth)."
But partially incorrect, especially with regard to forecasting:
"Generation. Coal-fired generation in the electric power sector is expected to decline by 3.2 percent in 2009 while generation fueled by natural gas is expected to increase by 1.6 percent, primarily due to the favorable natural gas prices compared with delivered coal prices. Difficulties in obtaining credit reportedly have hampered the addition of windpower capacity by some developers. Thus, growth in wind generation is expected to slow appreciably through 2010, after having grown 50 percent last year."
Now, what WILL happen may be different from what SHOULD happen. I agree with you 100% that wind power is grossly underutilized and should be brought to full utilization. There are countless reasons to do this, without regard to CO2.
As for Michigan – the purpose of wind power is to generate electricity. You don’t start a business "to create jobs" – and you don’t spend public dollars "to create jobs" – public dollars are just taken from the private sector, where they would have "created jobs" making things that people actually wanted to buy. They’ll have more wind power in Michigan if wind is adequately funded in general and if the wind studies support building wind farms in Michigan.
I would hope that I would be awarded best answer here, based on your standards: certainly the EIA is as trustworthy as NOAA.
Of course since we can’t control when the wind blows, generation capacity must be kept on standby in order to step in should the wind not blow. Coal plants can’t be used for this because it takes too long to start a coal plant so usually expensive gas turbines are used. I wonder if the amount of standby gas generation capacity has increased?
I live out in the Permian Basin, the "light sweet crude" part of the world. We are adding businesses in an effort to smooth out the boom and bust business cycle of oil, but the side effect, of course, is replacing oil as a fuel in some situations.
I just hope the nuclear waste dump currently going in to Andrews County, Texas, not far from here, isn’t a sign of recklessness in the attempt.
I think such waste can be handled with a degree of safety, but the way the town fathers are frothing at the bit is quite worrisome to some of the neighbors out here.
Yes, it’s a sign of things to come, but not all such signs are comfortable.
It sounds like a good sign of moving forward, it is also a sign that the nonsense that some post here is not listened to in the real world. Things like they stop the wind, they make to much noise, one even suggested they could slow the spin of the Earth all these are fiction the last one is comical fiction.
Wind power is very good and there are no on going fuel costs, wind is meant to be part of several power sources, solar is another, thermal solar (an Australian invention) can continue to produce power after the sun goes down. Geothermal is the third, the three of these together can produce more than enough power without burning any fossil fuel.
There is a myth that is perpetuated by deniers that we all have to live like cavemen to reduce our power consumption in the last 5 years there has been a major power saving across the world as people have shifted to LCD monitors and flat screen tv’s which both use considerably less power than the CRTs they replace, I’m sure even jello has a flat screen monitor.
Yes, it is a sign, and a good one. Unfortunately, the global recession has slowed things down a bit. What will have a greater effect is the Obama administrations (EPA) turning down surface coal mining permits. They are trying to make coal more expensive, which is a good thing.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090409/ap_on_bi_ge/wv_mountaintop_removal;_ylt=AkgULiSGM2.EkO96YMNYlmdpl88F
Demand for all energy is down. The only reason that demand for wind is up is government meddling in the free market, creating demand for something less efficient.
Stop reading the labels on the sides of the windmills, and report what they actually generate.. I’m sure the numbers are very different.
Let’s work to make sure that the trend continues. The reduction is because of the lower demand combined with the conservation efforts. The increase in wind generation is because the government is encouraging it. Which it should.
But, it can all be reversed quickly. Remember Reagan!