Wind Energy - Can There Be Too Much Of A Good Thing? The Conference Board of Canada just published its report on 'International Experience with Implementing Wind Energy'. The report makes an overview of current knowledge on wind energy:

• wind energy is becoming competitive in some regions, primarily driven by cost reductions, better technology and improved siting


• developing wind energy requires a variety of policy instruments


• public opinion is favourable in the abstract, but a NIMBY syndrome pops often up for concrete projects (NIMBY = not in my backyard)

Intermittency is becoming the single biggest challenge for the sector, as the penetration of wind energy increases. The integration of wind energy into the electricity system brings additional costs:

• balancing cost: thermal power stations deviate from their original production schedule due to the increase variability of the load (where unbuffered use of wind power is seen as negative load)
  backup capacity needs to be available to supply electricity when there is no wind


• reinforcement of transmission and distribution grids, and a lot of good wind sites are found in areas with weak grids


• Estimates for these costs vary among various studies between 5% and 40% of generation costs, and further understanding in this field is needed.

The report also expresses a concern that the integration of wind without buffer affects system stability beyond a certain point. Experiences in Denmark and Germany indicate this thresholds might be around 20%. Beyond that, integration costs would tend to increase with increasing wind use.

Wind energy has grown significantly over the past 1.5 decades in 4 countries (Denmark, Germany, Spain US), primarily with policy support. The technology is now becoming competitive in certain regions. But intermittency, siting and distance to load limit its potential.

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The full report is freely available after registration from the website of the Conference Board of Canadahttp://www.conferenceboard.ca/Boardwiseii/LayoutAbstract.asp?DID=1537

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