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There is enough energy available in winds to meet all of the world's demand. Atmospheric turbines that convert steadier and faster high-altitude winds into energy could generate even more power than ground- and ocean-based units. New research from Carnegie's Ken Caldeira examines the limits of the amount of power that could be harvested from winds, as well as the effects high-altitude wind power could have on the climate as a whole. Their work is published September 9 by Nature Climate Change.
Led by Kate Marvel of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, who began this research at Carnegie, the team used models to quantify the amount of power that could be generated from both surface and atmospheric winds. Surface winds were defined as those that can be accessed by turbines supported by towers on land or rising out of the sea. High-altitude winds were defined as those that can be accessed by technology merging turbines and kites. The study looked only at the geophysical limitations of these techniques, not technical or economic factors.
Turbines create drag, or resistance, which removes momentum from the winds and tends to slow them. As the number of wind turbines increase, the amount of energy that is extracted increases. But at some point, the winds would be slowed so much that adding more turbines will not generate more electricity. This study focused on finding the point at which energy extraction is highest.
Using models, the team was able to determine that more than 400 terrawatts of power could be extracted from surface winds and more than 1,800 terrawatts could be generated by winds extracted throughout the atmosphere.
Today, civilization uses about 18 TW of power. Near-surface winds could provide more than 20 times today's global power demand and wind turbines on kites could potentially capture 100 times the current global power demand.
At maximum levels of power extraction, there would be substantial climate effects to wind harvesting. But the study found that the climate effects of extracting wind energy at the level of current global demand would be small, as long as the turbines were spread out and not clustered in just a few regions. At the level of global energy demand, wind turbines might affect surface temperatures by about 0.1 degree Celsius and affect precipitation by about 1%. Overall, the environmental impacts would not be substantial.
"Looking at the big picture, it is more likely that economic, technological or political factors will determine the growth of wind power around the world, rather than geophysical limitations," Caldeira said.
Uncertainty over the U.S. wind tax credit, set to expire at the end of this year, is taking its toll on the country's wind power industry. The tax credit, in existence since 1992, allows project developers or investors to trim tax payments 2.2 cents for every kilowatt-hour of power generated over the first 10 years of a project's life. "It's hard to make those new investments in bringing down costs when you don't know what the world will look like a hundred days from now," Liz Salerno, chief economist for the American Wind Energy Association told The Washington Post.
To be eligible for the credit, wind farms must begin operating by this year, so developers have been scurrying to finish wind farms. A June report from the Congressional Research Service notes that while there's been a rush to install wind power for the tax benefit expires, "all projections reviewed for this report expect annual U.S. wind turbine demand to be less than the existing turbine manufacturing capacity -- approximately 13 (gigawatts) per year."
Meantime, wind manufacturers and their suppliers have begun shedding jobs and scaling back operations in response to the possible subsidy withdrawal. In recent months, American companies in the wind sector have announced almost 1,700 layoffs, reports The New York Times. Siemens announced this week that it would cut more than 600 wind power jobs in the United States, attributing the decision to regulatory uncertainty regarding the future of the wind tax credits. "Following the rapid ramp-up of the wind power industry over the past five years, the industry is facing a significant drop in new orders and this has an unfortunate consequence on employment in this segment of the power industry," Siemens said in a the Financial Times report.
Siemens' move follows wind tower maker Katana Summit's announcement earlier this month that it would close plants in Nebraska and Washington if it couldn't find a buyer, cutting nearly 300 jobs. And Denmark's turbine manufacturer Vestas is shutting a research and development facility in Houston that opened only three years ago and once employed 75 people. AWEA warns that 37,000 more jobs will be lost if the tax credit isn't renewed. About 85,000 people were employed in the wind sector during its peak in 2008 and 2009, the association says.
Critics of the tax argue that the wind sector has had enough time to wean itself from the subsidy and taxpayers' investment has yielded an inadequate return because wind represents a small share of total electricity generation. "Big Wind has had extension after extension after extension," says Benjamin Cole, a spokesman for the American Energy Alliance, a group financed in part by oil interests that has been lobbying against the credit in Washington, the Financial Times reports. "The government shouldn't be continuing to prop up industries that never seem to be able to get off their training wheels."
Read more: Wind power faces tax credit uncertainty - UPI.com
You have no idea if any of that is even remotely possible. You've just read fake reports from Companies looking to get Gov't Handouts.The combination of wind, solar, and other types of renewables can easily power the world. But it will require a new grid, because most of these are not point sources. Doable, but it will be expensive. Just not as expensive as continueing to pump GHGs into the atmosphere.
No wonder the Germans & Chinese are beatin' the pants off us in wind power...
Wind power faces tax credit uncertainty
WASHINGTON, Sept. 21,`12 - Uncertainty over the federal wind tax credit, set to expire at the end of this year, is taking its toll on the nation's wind power industry.
Uncertainty over the U.S. wind tax credit, set to expire at the end of this year, is taking its toll on the country's wind power industry. The tax credit, in existence since 1992, allows project developers or investors to trim tax payments 2.2 cents for every kilowatt-hour of power generated over the first 10 years of a project's life. "It's hard to make those new investments in bringing down costs when you don't know what the world will look like a hundred days from now," Liz Salerno, chief economist for the American Wind Energy Association told The Washington Post.
Growing pains of China's wind power industry
China surpassed the United States to become the world's largest producer of wind
power at the end of 2010. However, China's wind power industry has been troubled
with growing pains.
The State Grid Corporation of China (State Grid) and the Inner Mongolia Grid, an
independent provincial power grid, have ensured that all of the wind turbines
connected to their power grids are government-approved. However, they cannot allow
all of these turbines to operate simultaneously.
One reason for this is the fluctuating nature of wind power. Some industry officials
believe that wind power may pose a serious threat to power grid stability, saying
that wind power should account for less than 5 to 10 percent of any given power
grid's total power. However, on April 8, 2010, wind power accounted for 18.7 percent
of the Inner Mongolia Grid's total power without any negative repercussions.
A great deal of wind power is wasted during the winter season, when thermal power
generators are used to supply heat for most of Inner Mongolia's residents. The Inner
Mongolia Grid prefers to use thermal power generators because they can generate
electric power while simultaneously creating steam, which can be used to heat homes
and businesses in the region.
Tao Ming, director of the Siziwang Banner wind power office, says "during the
winter, the grid gives priority to generating power with thermal power generators.
Inner Mongolia has relatively low demands for electric power because of its
underdeveloped industries. Thermal power plants can work at full steam, while wind
turbines have to remain idle."
Northwest China's Gansu Province has not fared much better. Only 68 percent of the
province's turbines, which are connected to a wind power base in the city of
Jiuquan, are continuously generating power, according to the Jiuquan municipal
energy bureau.
According to a February report by the China Electricity Council (CEC), about
one-third of China's wind turbines are idle, a sign that China's wind power industry
has some serious problems to solve.
Wang Bingjun, director of the Inner Mongolia Energy Bureau, says "the Inner
Mongolia Grid has reached its upper limit in accepting wind power for local
consumption. The only solution is to send out wind power over long distances and
integrate it into the much larger State Grid."
This, however, is easier said than done.
Longyuan says the wind farm may run for nearly 2,000 hours a year, compared with
2,600-2,800 hours in the northern areas.
<<FlaCalTenn says -- there's 8400+ hours in a year.. Are you paying attention "wind will power the world folks???? ">>
But Lai'an sits near the terminal users of
the East China Grid, which will ensure wind turbines run at full capacity.
Longyuan says it will construct more such low-speed wind farms in Anhui and
neighboring Shandong province. In Chuzhou City alone, Longyuan will construct 1GW
wind farms in three years.
Meanwhile, some industry officials propose a "time break" after years of doubling
growth in the wind power industry.
Lu Jianjun says "China's wind farms were constructed a bit too fast. They have
outpaced supporting grids, management and technologies. Proper reorganization is
necessary."
Lu believes when wind power has developed to a certain extent, it is unrealistic to
maintain the doubling-growth miracle. Therefore, in order to facilitate sustainable
and healthy development of the industry, Lu thinks it's necessary to rein in its
development for the time being.
