About 3 weeks ago there was a report saying that wind turbines were inefficient and liable to breakdown.
In the Times of 10th July there is a report headed “British Energy Nuclear Power Output Slides” Evidently nuclear power output fell by 17% during the second quarter. There was a glitch at Sizewell ‘B’ nuclear power station in May. This triggered blackouts that hit up to 500,000 homes. At least I know what caused those blackouts now.
So how was the gap in supply plugged? By getting Eggborough COAL fired power station to ramp up production. At least we had hot water from our solar panel.
What means of generating electricity can we use if both wind and nuclear power are unreliable?
Hi Anne,
I believe the report on wind’s supposed unreliability was overblown, if you will pardon a poor pun. Most utility power systems rely on a mix of resources to ensure reliability. The coal plant you mention may have been fired up to bail out the nuclear plant, but presumably it ran for only a short period of time and emitted a modest amount of greenhouse gases. The same is true for wind power. It matches up well with gas-fired power. A system in the UK, which has a generally excellent wind resource, should use relatively little fuel and produce low emissions with a mix of wind and gas.
Regards,
Thomas O. Gray
American Wind Energy Association
http://www.powerofwind.org
http://www.awea.org