News Release from windfair.net
Wind Industry Profile of
11/29/2010
Windfair.net: EWEA Grids 2010
While the themes of the individual sessions often had a technical focus, it was clear from the opening, that the main message here, is a political one. For the renewable power industry, the expansion of Europes's electricity grids seems to be the cheaper option. It brings the added benefits of guarantee of supply and increased competitiveness in the electricity market.
The DENA Grid Study II presented in the press conference comes to similar conclusions regarding Germany.
Up until 2020 the power grid will have to be expanded by 3,600km, or 10%. However this will hardly affect the average household consumer, with an estimated electricity price rise of 0.1 to 0.2 cents per kWh. At the current price of 20 cents per kWh this is quite a marginal increase of only about 1%.
Unfortunately the grid expansion will be associated with high use of the landscape. It will be important to improve the poor image of high voltage power lines, that have traditionally been associated with 'dirty' power generation such as coal and nuclear. Only by expanding the existing electricity network, can the aim of 100% renewable power at an affordable price be achieved.
An intersting study from Ireland reports that hydroelectric dams are only capable of storing generated wind energy and saving CO2 above a wind capacity of over 50%. The reason for this unexpected result is that pumped storage will be powered largley by coal in times of low renewable production and will supplant cleaner technologies such as gas during times of peak demand. The whole process is exacerbated by at least 20% of losses in the pumping and consumption of the stored power. Other ideas such as so called Smart Grids or Vehicle to Grid (back-feeding electric cars) offer further possibilities, but at much higher costs, and will only be the second choice for the energy options of the future.
The active expansion of the European electricity grid is in such, a political task, that has to be tackled together with landscape conservation. Up until now, the larger power companies, like in Schleswig-Holstein for instance, have tended to halt progress on the grids issue, inspite of power purchase agreements, as wind is unwelcome competition.
The DENA Grid Study II presented in the press conference comes to similar conclusions regarding Germany.
Up until 2020 the power grid will have to be expanded by 3,600km, or 10%. However this will hardly affect the average household consumer, with an estimated electricity price rise of 0.1 to 0.2 cents per kWh. At the current price of 20 cents per kWh this is quite a marginal increase of only about 1%.
Unfortunately the grid expansion will be associated with high use of the landscape. It will be important to improve the poor image of high voltage power lines, that have traditionally been associated with 'dirty' power generation such as coal and nuclear. Only by expanding the existing electricity network, can the aim of 100% renewable power at an affordable price be achieved.
An intersting study from Ireland reports that hydroelectric dams are only capable of storing generated wind energy and saving CO2 above a wind capacity of over 50%. The reason for this unexpected result is that pumped storage will be powered largley by coal in times of low renewable production and will supplant cleaner technologies such as gas during times of peak demand. The whole process is exacerbated by at least 20% of losses in the pumping and consumption of the stored power. Other ideas such as so called Smart Grids or Vehicle to Grid (back-feeding electric cars) offer further possibilities, but at much higher costs, and will only be the second choice for the energy options of the future.
The active expansion of the European electricity grid is in such, a political task, that has to be tackled together with landscape conservation. Up until now, the larger power companies, like in Schleswig-Holstein for instance, have tended to halt progress on the grids issue, inspite of power purchase agreements, as wind is unwelcome competition.
- Source:
- Martin Tschierschke
- Author:
- Recherche / Grids 2010
- Email:
- mt@windmesse.de
- Link:
- www.ewea.org/...
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