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Old 11-27-2012, 09:31 PM
 
Location: Corpus Christi, TX
220 posts, read 452,239 times
Reputation: 259

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Texas sets wind power records with new grid analysis | Reuters

Quote:
The amount of electricity produced from wind on Wednesday evening set a record at 7,599 megawatts, up 196 MW from the previous day, which eked past a 7,400-MW record set last October, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) said in a statement.

At the time of the latest record, wind generation accounted for 22 percent of the power demand of 34,318 MW, the grid agency said.
Obviously this is under more ideal conditions, but hopefully wind power will continue to be invested in and improved regardless of what happens with the subsidies.
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Old 11-28-2012, 12:22 AM
 
5,760 posts, read 11,502,137 times
Reputation: 4949
Could really use some balance with Solar for Texas.

The wind hits best in Spring and Fall, and at night -- all when power use is the least.

Solar is best (Summer and Winter, and daytime) when the demand is the most.

But the PTC (Production Tax Credit) for Big Wind of 2.2 cents per kWh really warped the market.
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Old 11-28-2012, 09:30 AM
 
Location: Blah
4,153 posts, read 9,232,939 times
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It's easy to believe seeing how Texas has the largest Wind Farms...and plenty of wind. The industry really saw a boost with lower altitude wind turbines. Up until then you typically didn't see wind turbines except on hills and plateaus. Now there every where, in the middle of cotton fields etc. It was entertaining back in my oilfield days working a well that was surrounds by wind turbines lol
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Old 11-28-2012, 03:31 PM
 
2,206 posts, read 4,724,951 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Philip T View Post
Could really use some balance with Solar for Texas.

The wind hits best in Spring and Fall, and at night -- all when power use is the least.

Solar is best (Summer and Winter, and daytime) when the demand is the most.
Solar sucks in the winter because the sunlight is only 1/4 as strong and the daylight is much less. And demand is high when it is cold and wet. And when it is cold and wet there is no solar production.

As for wind, I know someone who puts in wind farms for a living. On average, a wind farm in class 6 or better areas, will provide 18-23% of its gross rate capacity during the year. The worst times of the year in TX are summer and winter due to the high pressure systems. But in fact you can have several days in a row with little wind at any time.

Wind Powering America: Texas 80-Meter Wind Map and Wind Resource Potential

ERCOT is mandating that wind/solar stay below a certain % due to the risks in bringing on gas turbine plants to make up the shortfall when solar/wind drops off.
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Old 11-28-2012, 10:02 PM
 
5,760 posts, read 11,502,137 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TX75007 View Post
Solar sucks in the winter because the sunlight is only 1/4 as strong and the daylight is much less. And demand is high when it is cold and wet. And when it is cold and wet there is no solar production.
mkay. That is just plain goofy. If you can accept some skoolin' here is the deal. Limiting factor on Solar PV tends to be the internal resistance of the modules/panels. Limiting factor is not so much the amount of "sun." They put out on Cloudy days, as well.

While longer days are better, because they put out more energy (power X time) but that is about it. The major limiting factor is the temperature. The lower the temperature, the lower the internal resistance, which means the highest output.

Since the coldest time is the Winter, highest PV voltage time in Texas is Winter with a Fixed Array. You can do better with a higher tilt.

The daily average run time through much of Texas is around 5 hours Winter, 6 hours Summer, with both longer if you use trackers.

But jumping past all the production matters brings us to Time of Use. When folks actually use the energy. Big time in Texas is daytime Summer -- for the Air Conditioning. Solar has a very close match to that actual load.

Wind does not.

Quote:

As for wind, I know someone who puts in wind farms for a living.
Sure. I drove by some cows in a field, honked and said mooo. Makes me a rancher.

Quote:

On average, a wind farm in class 6 or better areas, will provide 18-23% of its gross rate capacity during the year. The worst times of the year in TX are summer and winter due to the high pressure systems. But in fact you can have several days in a row with little wind at any time.
The Texas average we use is about 22%. Means you are going to producing about 1/5 of the time. Problem with the non-aligned production time of Wind is that it tends to miss the Time of Use patterns in Texas. We use biggest in Summer, second biggest in Winter, and mostly just during the day. All when the Wind is least.

Night time power is already worthless in Texas. Same for Spring and Fall. That is when we take entire Coal plants off-line for outages and repairs.

Here is how worthless the Night Time Power is >>>

Save With Free Nights Plan | TXU Energy

More night time power is . . . what? More worthless? Already have the idling Coal and Nuke sites all night. Wind gets so worthless in Texas sometimes the local Big Wind operators have to pay the grid just to take to the power. (The Big Wind sites still get the 2.2 cents per kWh Production Tax Credit whether anyone uses the power or not) -- so they generate just to get the tax credit.


Quote:

ERCOT is mandating that wind/solar stay below a certain % due to the risks in bringing on gas turbine plants to make up the shortfall when solar/wind drops off.
ERCOT and EFH / TXU / ONCOR stay "closely aligned," if you follow my drift. Solar daytime power actually balances the loads nicely.

ONCOR runs a farce of rebate program for Solar to meet the absolute minimum they can do.

As more Solar comes into Texas it makes the existing Coal and Nukes more and more worthless, as well.

They have already lost $10's of Billions in these bad buys and are trying to hold off bankruptcy. Solar would cut down the prime time (maximum pricing) for the big producers. Do you get the game?
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