Efforts to Solve Wind's Unpredictability

This article is a bit lengthy for someone who may not be totally interested, so I'll share some highlights.

This New York Times article is titled "Wind Drives Higher Use of Batteries". It explains efforts being made to control the unpredictability of wind power for electric providers. Reason for using more batteries? And what kind of batteries? Well the batteries aren't ones sold in your nearest CVS, they are battery systems that are needed to help solve fluctuations in energy coming from wind farms.

The article's explanation of the problem:"Companies have found themselves dumping energy late at night, adjusting the blades so they do not catch the wind, because there is no demand for the power. And grid operators, accustomed to meeting demand by adjusting supplies, are now struggling to maintain stability as supplies fluctuate." Basically - What do we do with this wind energy when it's coming in but we don't need it?

The article's explanation of the battery's use to solve the problem: "The battery system can also be used for arbitrage, storing energy at times when prices are low and delivering it when prices are high. It can hold 10 megawatt-hours, which is as much energy as a 30-megawatt wind farm will produce in 20 minutes if it is running at full capacity. That is not much time, but it is huge in terms of storage capacity.." Basically - these battery systems will store the unused energy and distribute it when it's needed. Sweet right?

It's just so great to see innovation beginning because the more efficient we make wind energy, the easier my job gets to argue for it. Below are some other snippets of other ways being used right now to help solve this problem.

"At a pumped hydro plant, off-peak electricity is used to pump water from a reservoir at a low elevation to one at a higher one. At hours of peak demand the water flows back down through a turbine, creating electricity."

"In Stephentown, N.Y., near Albany, a Massachusetts company, Beacon Power, is building a bank of 200 one-ton flywheels that will store energy from the grid on a moment-to-moment basis to keep the alternating current system at a strict 60 cycles. Atop each flywheel is a device that can be a motor at one moment and a generator the next, either taking energy and storing it in the flywheel or vice versa."

"The Energy Department is also supporting storage projects that rely on compressed air. Surplus electricity is used to pump air into an underground cavity; when the electricity is needed, the air is injected into a gas turbine generator. In effect, it acts as a turbocharger that runs on wind energy captured the previous night, instead of natural gas burned at a peak hour."

Delicious I know.