[lbo-talk] Tanzania to step up windmill power generation study

[Gar Lipow]

This especially makes sense in a nation with  lots of  hydro power.
Wind energy is variable, though if a large amount is coming from 
mutliple sites and multiple locations    in a very predictable way.
But for new power plants it is the cheapest source per kWh  compared
to everything  but  coal, and sometimes can beat that (even without
considering social costs(note I only said sometimes)).  In a grid that
has a large hydro component, wind can easily provide half the
electricity without compromising grid reliablility. (In other words
you use the absolutely dispatchable hydro to supplement the
not-very-dispatchable  wind.)   If you start getting dams with really
low levels you can install bidirectional  turbines, and use wind
generated electrictiy to do pumped storage; at that point if  50% is
not enough you can use wind to provide almost all your electricity.
Pumped storage adds only between one tenth of a cent and one cent to
the cost of a kWh.   But you need particular geographical features to
use it in this range (especially the low end); a nation with lots
hydro to begin with is most likely to have such features. The low end
of the  spectrum is achieved when you convert an existing dam whose
level is so low you end  using  it largely as storage, rather than as
a source supplemented by storage.

On 9/7/05, uvj at vsnl.com <uvj at vsnl.com> wrote:
> People's Daily Online
> 
> Business
> 
> September 05, 2005
> 
> Tanzania to step up windmill power generation study