Wind turbines used to absorb a power surplus?

[Tim+]

Happens here in the UK too occasionally. If you’re on the appropriate tariff you get paid for using power.

Tim

[John Larkin]

I was thinking about "Residual fuel oil" like Bunker C, not coal. It has to be heated to make it liquid enough to pump, and it's full of sulfur and stuff.

[alan_m]

This year you get paid for not using power.

This winter I've been paid around £9 for not using electricity at certain times. :) This is not when prices go negative but when the wind has stopped blowing, at peak usage times and when the grid is in danger of running out of electricity. Oh, and when it's dark and for some strange reason solar is producing nothing. One of the benefits of UK starting to rely on intermittent green power.

This scheme asks you to reduce consumption for maybe an hour at a designated time of day. You have to be on a smart meter where your meter data is updated on a 30 minute basis. They compare your usage for this designated hour with your average usage at the same time of day for the previous 10 days.

[Tim+]

Well yes, but getting paid to use electricity is a thing if you’re on Octopus Agile. This is completely separate from the use reduction reward scheme.

Tim

[boB]

They certainly could. Some are basicall synchronous machines which is why they spin at one speed, unless they are off and braked.

I have a picture somewhere of the video production screen of a wind farm in Oregon when I was visiting. The wind turbines (500 kW each) had individual statistics information and a lot of them were producing power, some were stopped and some were drawing energy (fans). I just assumed that these power sucking turbines were just waiting for wind to pass but I don't really know why. The power they were drawing was somewhere between 35 kW and 50 kW as I remember.

boB

[SteveW]

Germany has paid domestic users to use power on occasion.

[Scott Lurndal]

Wind farms will consume power from the grid (when there is insufficient wind) to:

1) Prevent ice from forming on the blades (where/when freezing is possible). 2) Power the mechanism that turns the head of the windmill into the direction of the winds (when less than or greater than the operating speed of the generator).

[alan_m]

That's a tariff that can also cost a lot more than the national capped rate.

[Scott Lurndal]

and most importantly, 3) Correct the grid power-factor.

[John Larkin]

3) Kill birds

[Sylvia Else]

The problem there is that it's not economic to have the equipment required to do that standing around unused waiting for the occasions when power is available.

Sylvia.

[Ed Pawlowski]

Would be nice to see how many birds are killed versus wildlife (and people) in digging coal mining and oil wells.

[Scott Lurndal]

Domestic cats kill 2.4 billion birds annually. Windmills account for

1 in 4000 of the annual total, maybe half a million max.

[rbowman]

Flaherty became famous after filming 'Nanook of the North'. In later years he filmed 'Louisiana Story' about oil exploration in the bayous. The local people and wildlife loved the oil rig. (Standard Oil paid for the film)

[Sam Plusnet]

And the only electricity you can get from a cat is the static type.

[rbowman]

I use the Verizon wireless which works well except in heavy fog. Most of the neighbors have dishes although I think most are for TVs. A bay would be nice; we have these things called mountains. My former ISP had a antenna on a local mountain but not one in my quasi line of sight.

[alan_m]

To make that a fair comparison you have to use the figures for kills per cat and kills per windmill.

[alan_m]

If the climate activists have their way there will not be any other source of backup equipment after 2030 to provide any electricity when the wind doesn't blow or the sun doesn't shine.

There seems to be another climate emergency (or whatever its called this week) conference going on soon. On the early morning news there was an activist from California and one from the UK spouting off about we have the technology of Windmills and Solar (nothing else) to replace all fossil fuel generation by 2030.

In Extinction Rebellion have their way there will be no oil to lubricate the moving parts for the windmills, no oil to make tyres for their bicycles and no tarmac for their cycle lanes.

[Jasen Betts]

Many fewer wind turbines are needed per household than cats.

[alan_m]

Is there any need for cats?