Your Energy Matters

Mother Nature doesn't always have the best timing, and therein is one of the main challenges for utility companies that rely on renewable energy sources like wind and solar to meet customers' energy needs.

Last week, the Wall Street Journal published an op-ed concerning the feasibility of wind energy. It's an important topic that deserves more discussion because there are often a lot of "facts" that go unchallenged when discussing the potential of wind energy, especially in Kentucky.   

For us, having a secure and reliable supply of fuel is essential. We must generate and deliver energy as our customers demand it, and we're required by the Kentucky Public Service Commission to provide service in the most cost-efficient way. For the "always-on" power that we must have ready at a moment's notice, that means wind energy is a costly and unpredictable fuel source.   

Wind farms seldom produce energy equal to what is promised, and even the turbines in windier places like Kansas and the Great Plains states regularly produce only a fraction of their potential.

If only 10 percent of your investment is available when it’s needed most (think peak energy demand days in the summer or winter), a utility company either has to have 10 times the rated capacity or supplement the short-fall with more reliable back-up generation which adds to the cost.

Think of it another way: if your car is rated to provide 30 miles per gallon but can only do so on rare occasions and usually only delivers 3 miles per gallon, you’d have some real problems.

While wind turbines will continue to become more efficient, technological advancements can’t capture wind that doesn’t blow.

At LG&E and KU, we must meet our customers’ energy needs 24/7, and that requires us to respond real-time to any changes in demand.

Wind energy can play a role in meeting the nation’s energy needs, but its low availability, particularly on hot summer days, and the relatively high cost of wind turbines means it’s not a good source for reliable, low-cost generation that we are obligated to supply in Kentucky.

We delve into this topic more in future posts, but check out the op-ed below for more on the matter:

Op-Ed: The rationale for wind power won’t fly

To understand the folly that drives too much of the nation's energy policies, consider these basic facts about wind energy.

After decades of federal subsidies—almost $24 billion according to a recent estimate by former U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm—nowhere in the United States, or anywhere else, has an array of wind turbines replaced a single conventional power plant. Nowhere.

But wind farms do take up space. The available data from wind-power companies, with which the Environmental Protection Agency agrees, show that the most effective of them can generate about five kilowatts per acre. This means 300 square miles of land—192,000 acres—are necessary to generate the 1,000 megawatts (a billion watts) of electricity that a conventional power plant using coal, nuclear energy or natural gas can generate on a few hundred acres. A billion watts fulfills the average annual power demand of a city of 700,000.

Taxpayer support for wind energy will eventually come to an end, I optimistically predict. The only question is how soon. My pessimistic guess is it will take another decade—by which time the number of wind turbines, currently about 45,000 according to the American Wind Energy Association, could more than double.

It is unclear whether very many wind-energy firms have sufficient monetary reserves to cover dismantling these behemoth lawn sculptures once the tax credits wind down or disappear. If not, the result will be a scene from a science fiction movie—as though giant aliens descended onto our planet only to freeze in place.

The promise that wind and solar power could replace conventional electricity production never really made sense. It's known to everybody in the industry that a wind turbine will generate electricity 30% of the time—but it's impossible to predict when that time will be. A true believer might be willing to do without electricity when the wind is not blowing, but most people will not. And so, during the 30% of the time the blades are spinning, conventional power plants are also spinning on low, waiting to operate during the other 70% of the time.

Importantly, the amount of electricity the wind can generate per acre of land is unrelated to the size of the turbines. Yes, by doubling the turbine's blade length you quadruple the turbine's power output. The problem? If the turbines are big and tall you need fewer of them, but they must be more widely separated. If they're smaller you need more of them, closer together.

Another inescapable problem for electricity grids: The power generated by a wind turbine varies with the cube of the wind speed. When the wind speed doubles—say from 10 miles per hour to 20 miles per hour—the energy output increases eightfold (2 x 2 x 2). Someone, or some computer, has to balance these huge variations on the grid by calling on standby generators to produce more or less power to maintain the stability essential to the grid.

So, you might wonder, do high winds make turbines really hum? No. Turbines must be shut down in high winds because centrifugal force would begin to tear the blades apart. Also, the world has learned from experience in Europe—whose wind sculpture gardens may one day dwarf ours—that a one-millimeter buildup of bugs on the blades reduces their power output by as much as 25%.

There are other problems. Thousands of turbine breakdowns and accidents have been reported in recent years. The basic concrete foundations are suffering from strains, as reported by industry sources and on the wind-farm construction website windfarmbop.com.

And there are environmental factors. Annoying, low-frequency noise produced by wind turbines, particularly large turbines, is driving some people away from their homes, according to numerous press reports. (Low-frequency noise regulations are already in place in Denmark while the phenomenon is the subject of continuing research.) The Audubon Society now estimates bird deaths from turbines exceed a million per year.

Wind is at best a niche player in energy. Grandiose claims made on behalf of wind-generated electricity are rubbish, whether or not renewable-energy advocates admit it. Wind-power developers will milk taxpayers across the world out of a few billion more dollars, euros or pounds in subsidies, tax credits and the like, but sooner or later the public will wise up.

Dr. Lehr, a geological engineer and hydrologist, is science director of the Heartland Institute.

Clip: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324310104578507242336481504.html

Here's a preview of a recent article from the newspaper Canada Free Press.

Germany is phasing out its nuclear plants in favor of wind and solar energy backed-up by coal power. The government’s transition to these intermittent green energy technologies is causing havoc with its electric grid and that of its neighbors—countries that are now building switches to turn off their connection with Germany at their borders.

The intermittent power is causing destabilization of the electric grids causing potential blackouts, weakening voltage and causing damage to industrial equipment.

The instability of the electric grid is just one of many issues that the German government is facing regarding its move to intermittent renewable technologies.

Residential electricity prices in Germany are some of the highest in Europe and are increasing dramatically (currently Germans pay 34 cents a kilowatt hour compared to an average of 12 cents in the United States). Note: LG&E and KU customers pay a little less than 9 cents a kilowatt hour.  

This year German electricity rates are about to increase by over 10 percent due mainly to a surcharge for using more renewable energy and a further 30 to 50 percent price increase is expected in the next ten years. These changes in the electricity generation market have caused about 800,000 German households to no longer be able to afford their energy bills.

For some, switching to renewable energy sources seems easy...a no-brainer. We addressed the possibility of large-scale wind energy in Kentucky in a previous blog entry.

As we said in that post, we must meet our customers’ energy needs 24/7, and that requires us to respond real-time to any changes in demand.

Within the U.S., wind energy can play a role in meeting our energy needs, but its low availability, particularly on hot summer days, and the relatively high cost of wind turbines means it’s not a good source for reliable, low-cost generation that we are obligated to supply in Kentucky.

We'll follow Germany's struggles and provide updates to our readers, as Germany is looked at by some as a model for what could be done here in the states.

Until next time, keep using energy wisely.  

If you’ve ever driven west from Kentucky, you know the drive can be pretty flat at times. With family in Iowa, I make the drive about once a year. A common joke from my in-laws is that it’s so flat you can watch your dog run away for three days.

Driving through the Midwest and Great Plains, you’ll encounter stretches of road where wind turbines dot the country-side. And there’s a good reason for it: the geography is such that winds in portions of these areas are much stronger than average.

That means the “fuel” for these wind turbines is available more often and in steadier supply than in places like Kentucky, which Mother Nature ranked low on the wind potential scale.

Having a secure and reliable supply of fuel is essential for utility companies like ours, which must generate and deliver energy as their customers demand it.

And in Kentucky, we’re mandated to serve our customers at the lowest reasonable cost. A poor availability of steady and strong winds in our state means that relying on wind to create energy on a larger size and scale – particularly on the hottest days of summer and coldest days of winter – would be an expensive endeavor, and one that would require a lot of land.

Largest wind farm in Kansas begins operation

Check out this story from the Kansas City Star about a wind farm in the state that began commercial operation this year. In order to generate 438 megawatts, more than 274 wind turbines were built on a 66,000-acre plot of land.

Since we’re often asked about the possibility of wind power to meet customers’ energy demands in Kentucky, I did a little more research on the amount of land it would take in order to match the stated generation output of the wind farm in Kansas.

Because the wind doesn’t always blow in our area (wind typically generates only about 10 percent of its rated capacity at the time of summer peak), we would need 10 times the scale of Kansas’ latest wind farm to actually get 438 megawatts during times of peak energy use.

Not all wind is created equal

How large is 66,000 acres (the size of Kansas’ latest wind farm)? More than 103 square miles.

To put this in perspective, Louisville, Ky., is nearly 400 square miles and Lexington, Ky., is about 285 square miles.

Knowing that 10 times the scale of the 438-megawatt wind farm in Kansas would need to be built in Kentucky to match the generation output, we would need at least 1,030 square miles of land (659,200 acres) to complete a similar project here in the Bluegrass state.

That’s more than 2.5 times the size of Louisville and more than 3.5 times the size of Lexington.

Truth in Advertising

Wind farms seldom produce energy equal to what is promised, and even the turbines in windier places like Kansas and the Great Plains states regularly produce only a fraction of their rated capacity.

If only 10 percent of your investment is available when it’s needed most (think peak energy demand days in the summer or winter), a utility company either has to have 10 times the rated capacity or supplement the short-fall with more reliable back-up generation which adds to the cost.

While wind turbines will continue to become more efficient, technological advancements can’t capture wind that doesn’t blow.

Think of it another way: if your car is rated to provide 30 miles per gallon but can only do so on rare occasions and usually only delivers 3 miles per gallon, you’d have some real problems.

At LG&E and KU, we must meet our customers’ energy needs 24/7, and that requires us to respond real-time to any changes in demand.

Wind energy can play a role in meeting the nation’s energy needs, but its low availability, particularly on hot summer days, and the relatively high cost of wind turbines means it’s not a good source for reliable, low-cost generation that we are obligated to supply in Kentucky.

We’ll explore more environmental topics in future blog entries. If there’s anything you’d like us to discuss, leave us a comment and we’ll add it to the list.

Until next time, keep using energy wisely.