Lots and LOTS of Wind Turbines at San Gorgonio Pass Wind Farm

[Gibson99]

Is there actually a mechanism to store the generated electrical energy when the demand is lower than the supply?

some places are experimenting with batteries (mostly for solar, for obvious reasons), but others are trying pumping gas (ie: raw atmosphere into natural salt domes at high pressures) or water to store generated energy as kinetic energy. the benefit of converting it to kinetic rather than chemical (battery) is that batteries wear out and are pretty expensive, but kinetic storage uses up a lot of space and isn't as efficient. then again, since generation cost from solar, wind and hydro is basically zero, even inefficient storage is better than none.

 

[kamkar]

My sugestion to storing wind power is to use the surplus power to pump water en mass in behind a dam in a Norwegian fjord, then then harvest it on no wind days going back to sea thru turbines.

I am finding it hard to see better alternatives to that idea, and still its a hard thing to do as Norwagian fjords aint small or shallow.

Now if we where to invent good huge batteries our problems will be over, then we just need to harvest lightning around the world.

 

[Nigel]

My sugestion to storing wind power is to use the surplus power to pump water en mass in behind a dam in a Norwegian fjord, then then harvest it on no wind days going back to sea thru turbines.

I am finding it hard to see better alternatives to that idea, and still its a hard thing to do as Norwagian fjords aint small or shallow.

I think a better alternative would be to store the water in the ocean, not in the fjord, then let the fjord fill up again to generate the power. That way the dam only needs to be half the height and you don't flood anyone's homes!

But storing the water at the top of a mountain like we do in the UK requires a lot less water for the same amount of energy and the turbine can operate at much higher pressure so is more efficient. I guess that is a bit difficult in Denmark though!

 

[kamkar]

Yeah we are allmost as low a country as Holland, and we have no fjords that useable for my idea.

No matter how we do it as i see it there will be a huge loss with current technology, i assume 3/4 of the energy is lost no matter how we do it.

Lets put it this way when all the ice are melted Denmark will be mighty small. i think only a little of Jutland will be left above water.