Comments on: Stunner: Volatility of wind energy means wild prices http://www.greenbang.com/stunner-volatility-of-wind-energy-means-wild-prices_10502.html Sustainable Energy Insight Fri, 27 Jan 2012 01:18:08 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: John G Steel http://www.greenbang.com/stunner-volatility-of-wind-energy-means-wild-prices_10502.html/comment-page-1#comment-8307 John G Steel Thu, 09 Jul 2009 21:28:35 +0000 http://www.greenbang.com/?p=10502#comment-8307 Electricity is a vital commodity; no electricity and the country stops functioning. The GNP is about £1600 billion. Therefore no electrity for 1 day will cost about £4.4 billion; and 1 day without wind every year is quite likely. (Ref the IEE International Conference on the Economics of Reliability of Suppy ca.1967). This implies that EVERY MW of wind power must be backed up by a MW of nuclear, fossil or tidal power. The cost of not providing this backup would be not be greeted with enthusiasm by the population who find that even an hours loss of supply is unaccepable. Nuclear power seems like a good bet because at least, unlike wind, the 'fuel' supply is reliable. Note also that £4.4 billion buys quite a significant amout of conventional and reliable powerplant!<div class="comment-remix-meta"><a href="#" class="replyto" onclick="replyto('8307','John G Steel'); return false;">Reply</a> - <a href="#" class="quote" onclick="quote('8307','John G Steel','Electricity is a vital commodity; no electricity and the country stops functioning. The GNP is about £1600 billion. Therefore no electrity for 1 day will cost about £4.4 billion; and 1 day without wind every year is quite likely. (Ref the IEE International Conference on the Economics of Reliability of Suppy ca.1967). This implies that EVERY MW of wind power must be backed up by a MW of nuclear, fossil or tidal power. The cost of not providing this backup would be not be greeted with enthusiasm by the population who find that even an hours loss of supply is unaccepable. Nuclear power seems like a good bet because at least, unlike wind, the \'fuel\' supply is reliable. Note also that £4.4 billion buys quite a significant amout of conventional and reliable powerplant!'); return false;">Quote</a></div> Electricity is a vital commodity; no electricity and the country stops functioning. The GNP is about £1600 billion. Therefore no electrity for 1 day will cost about £4.4 billion; and 1 day without wind every year is quite likely. (Ref the IEE International Conference on the Economics of Reliability of Suppy ca.1967). This implies that EVERY MW of wind power must be backed up by a MW of nuclear, fossil or tidal power. The cost of not providing this backup would be not be greeted with enthusiasm by the population who find that even an hours loss of supply is unaccepable. Nuclear power seems like a good bet because at least, unlike wind, the ‘fuel’ supply is reliable. Note also that £4.4 billion buys quite a significant amout of conventional and reliable powerplant!
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