Monthly Archives: November 2016

This post uses wind power data from the most recent major heatwave in South East Australia to illustrate some characteristics of wind power in that area. Data from all wind farms in Tasmania, Victoria and South Australia have been sorted … Continue reading →

This post will evolve over the next week or two to test how well wind power can be deduced from synoptic charts, using the period of the following weather forecast for Australia: Source of the figure above: http://www.bom.gov.au/australia/charts/4day_col.shtml A large … Continue reading →

In this post I propose and demonstrate a simple rule for determining how much dispatchable (non-wind) power is required to be available to the GB grid to “keep the lights on” in coming winters. Background Recent years in the area … Continue reading →

The previous post showed that GB wind power at 2016/17 levels would save around 1GW of the highest peak demand on non-wind generators, for repeats of the weather of the most recent nine winters. The 1GW figure means that non-wind … Continue reading →

SUMMARY and CONCLUSIONS Daily peak demands on GB non-wind generators for the weathers of the past nine winters, with 2016/17 wind generators, are found to have the following properties: The reductions due to wind power of highest peak demands on … Continue reading →

Summary and Policy Implications The “capacity credit” of GB wind power has been quantified for the nine most recent winters in terms of the increase due to wind power of the Minimum Reserve Capacity. Wind power data for these nine … Continue reading →

The UK government has just begun a consultation on the closure of unabated coal-fired generation of electricity: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/coal-generation-in-great-britain-the-pathway-to-a-low-carbon-future The closure date for responses is 1st February 2017. At the same time the UK is approaching winter, and I have started … Continue reading →