OT came across this gem re windfarms needing power from the grid!

[dave]

OT but thought interesting.

[Chris Hogg]

This paragraph caught my eye: "Theoretically, Britain?s wind farms, both onshore and off, have a combined capacity of 12.1GW, enough to power 8.8 million homes. However, a report published last October by the Scientific Alliance and the Adam Smith Institute found that the chance of all Britain?s windfarms running at full capacity together was ?vanishingly small?, meaning that actual output is often far lower. Rather, they found that the average output was just eight percent of the headline figure."

Eight percent!!! Bloody hell!! Things are worse than I realised.

[The Natural Philosopher]

no, its not that bad. they average about 22%.

Amnd we dont have 12GW either, Not up and running.

[Brian Gaff]

Well how else do they keep from icing up? I'd have thought this was obvious and should have been factored into the costs. After all, we all know the terrible delays we get at airports when freezing fog is around, rather like at Heathrow yesterday in fact. Brian

[Brian Gaff]

Depends how they calculate that. If they are looking over all times, ie when the wind is not blowing or blowing too much or too gusty etc, then I can easily see how this might be a realistic figure. They may well be built in so called windy places, but even the windyest place is only windy about a third of the time after all.

Brian

[Bob Henson]

Nothing surprising there then. The only thing that surprises me is that anyone can be so dim as to think otherwise.

[Fredxxx]

I don't care, as long as their consumption is used to offset generation at the FIT rate.