Comments on: Oregon wind energy too much to handle

By: Business From Around the Northwest | Vancouver Business Journal

Business From Around the Northwest | Vancouver Business Journal — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 10:48:16 +0000

[…] Oregon wind energy too much to handle, Daily Journal of Commerce […]

By: One easy answer

One easy answer — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 23:40:59 +0000

Doesn’t this suggest that wind power should be used to pump water up hill where it will have a steady and predictable release to gererate truly green power to the grid? And that probably works for other intermittent generation sources and storage methods. You can skip using natural gas for stationary power. I suppose clever energy traders have a different interest, but what about the public?

By: Matthew Shapiro

Matthew Shapiro — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 07:08:49 +0000

Pumped storage projects can be difficult to site. But it only takes a few very good sites – at several hundred MW each – to provide a lot of flexibility to the system. Those sites can be closed-loop projects that don’t involve natural waterways and make the best use of natural topography. A number are being proposed near the Columbia, down near the California border, and elsewhere. As for compressed air energy storage, that’s even easier and less expensive to site – provided you get the geology right for the underground air caverns.

By: no easy answers

no easy answers — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 16:45:37 +0000

I would love to hear what Matthew Shapiro’s “good options for bulk energy storage” are. Options such as pumped-power storage and compressed air require siting huge new reservoirs, which is only slightly less difficult than siting huge new transmission lines.

Few people realize that only 400 megawatts of the 2800 megawatts in the BPA balancing area currently goes to BPA’s primary customers. The bulk is going to California. And yet developers keep building more turbines here in the NW “wind ghetto,” with the blessing of local and state officials who can’t wait to get their hands on the property tax revenues (even as these wind projects destroy the property values of homes around them).

When (mostly urban) people vote for renewable energy mandates, they are essentially voting for huge new dams or transmission lines in (mostly rural) sacrifice zones that are already the dumping/logging/mining/french-fry-growing/etc. grounds for “green” cities like Portland and Seattle. Yet another example of environmental injustice.

By: Matthew Shapiro

Matthew Shapiro — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 21:48:31 +0000

Some very good options for bulk energy storage are coming down the line. These should be considered either at the wind-supplier level or the BPA level.

By: Mike Keller

Mike Keller — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 21:42:18 +0000

Inexpensive hydroelectric power being displaced by expensive wind energy to reduce greenhouse emissions that are not there in the 1st place. Then using natural gas to cover wind turbine shortfalls.

What mental midgets came up with this dopey scheme? Ah yes … democratic politicians.

Gee, I wonder how much this “green” wind energy gets to cost the good citizen? Could this be the reason for BPA increasing electric bills?

By: A Perspective

A Perspective — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 20:06:40 +0000

1000 megawatts is a large amount – is it not? Isn’t there something odd about setting aside that amount of the most “green” of standard energy production for wind production? Doesn’t the need for backup or reserves point to the invalidity of wind turbines as a predictable and constant energy source?

An energy source – wind turbines – relying on unpredictable wind but relying on the traditional methods to fill in the gaps. What is the net effect? Doesn’t a reserve of the “good” 1000 megawatts force a reliance on the “bad” energy sources? What is the cost to consumers for having to reserve 1000 megawatts?

I wonder too about the cost of the backup system that Iberdrola uses compared to that of its wind producing system. It is using a natural gas facility which I assume is on the grid, thus, don’t they limit the amount they produce for the grid? Or when the backup is needed doesn’t that take away from the grid requiring some other redirection of power?

Does the total Iberdrola system operate such that using the wind portion is cheaper? Does the combo really produce a greener net effect? Why not use a natural gas plant in the first place? I realize that wind power is an alternative to that produced by fossil fuels – but at what cost?

Nice article raising a host of questions.