Madness or what?

[dogsbody]

Windfarms paid NOT to produce electricity.....

BBC News - Scots windfarms paid cash to stop producing energy

[Hilary B]

Surely they could stop the production of OTHER energy in preference? The real problem seems to have been a fault in the system for passing on the power elsewhere!

[rustylady]

This absolutely crazy!! Surely what we need is some sort of system to store the energy produced until it is needed. I'm no scientist or engineer, but batteries spring to mind!! OK they would have to be on a huge scale but surely must be possible. Paying people to waste anything is totally mad.

[Sylvan]

There's a reservoir in Wales that acts as a giant battery. They pump the water up to the top of the mountain when there is an excess of electricity and when they need the power they let it run downhill again, creating hydro-electricity. Surely that sort of system would work in conjunction with wind farms?

Dinorwig Power Station - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Hillwalker]

There's a reservoir in Wales that acts as a giant battery. They pump the water up to the top of the mountain when there is an excess of electricity and when they need the power they let it run downhill again, creating hydro-electricity

They do the same thing in Scotland at Cruachan Power Station at Loch Awe.

[Two_Sheds]

We have a large wind turbine near us, and it's always turned off on windy days

[rustylady]

We have a large wind turbine near us, and it's always turned off on windy days

That's cos it's an ornament and they're afraid the huge sails will take the top off it if they go round fast!!

[Potstubsdustbins]

Total madness I agree, but if you think what are the other types of generator they are not that easy to turn off and on.

The wind farms are owned by private companies and if the national grid can't use their energy they are paid to stand still. Otherwise no company would invest the stupid amounts of money they cost to build.

Five new ones just outside Mansfield were commissioned at the end of last year, I have yet to see all five working together.

Colin

[oldie]

The Danes discovered some years ago that their wind turbines did not generate electricity as and when they needed it and were selling the surplus to other nearby countries at a loss. I think they stopped building them.

[snohare]

There is considerable research going on into using batteries, for exactly this reason. Liquid sodium is one thing that was proposed for large, building sized batteries, the only thing more insanely dangerous that springs to mind is liquid sodium cooled nuclear reactors, which are the exact opposite of "failsafe".
There are truckloads of money being spent on this research, no-one now in the associated (mainstream) fields of science considers oil, gas or hydrogen as anything other than a dwindling, stopgap way of meeting energy needs. Yes, we could perhaps use methane hydrates - but burning them, even assuming there is no such thing as global warming, would use up the world's supply of hydroxyl, which is the chemical catalyst that "cleans up" pollutants in Earth's atmosphere. If we don't want our kids to wear oxygen masks all their adult lives, probably best to be careful there.
There is extremely limited capacity to use hydroelectric schemes as energy storage, the problem being that the reservoir needs to be a considerable distance uphill but relatively close by where the power is generated, otherwise too much energy is lost to pumping - not many places like that.
Basically, they are building generating capacity before there is delivery infrastructure to support it - because investment would/will only follow from profits, and building delivery infrastructure makes for system efficiency, not profits. (Where renewables are concerned, anyway.)
If the generating companies were not guaranteed profit no matter what, their investors would have been speculating on wheat futures instead; and there would be no incentive to provide improved grid connections, which attract further investment once the initial sweet deals finish.
This is why we are all going to end up with smart meters in our houses, and a "smart grid", instead of the old "turn off Drax B after the footie" model. But there will still be a generating gap in a few years, and the lights will have to go out sometimes.

[SarzWix]

Suggest investing in these now then... Powerplus Gazelle - Pedal Powered Powerbank Generator

[Hilary B]

The 'not wanted just now' electricity could be used to separate out the hydrogen from water. Hydrogen is a good fuel, if they ever find a safe way of storing it. The pumped-water storage system is safer, but takes up a lot of space. The reason wind turbines get turned off in high winds is that it can be just too windy for them to operate safely, the 'business bits' get worn out if running at over-capacity.
The real answer to energy problems is to use less!