I commented several times on the Toronto blackout of July 5th on CBC television and radio on July 6th. Attached is an article, called “Green Blackout”, expanding upon the points raised in the CBC interviews, particularly the role of careless environmental advocates in undermining the reliability of Toronto’s electricity transmission system. The article appeared in the on-line edition of the National Post July 7th and the print edition July 8th. The article was subsequently discussed by various media outlets including by John Tory on CRFB radio on July 9th.
Archive for the ‘Wind Power’ Category
Green Blackout: Toronto July 5th 2010
Wednesday, July 14th, 2010Ontario Wind Farm Productivity and Variability by In-service Year
Friday, July 2nd, 2010This post provides data current to June 30, 2010 on the productivity and variability of output of Ontario’s wind farms. The tendency of more productive wind farms to produce power with greater annual variability of output is observed. An error in the data reported in the April 6, 2010 edition of the report with respect to Prince Farm is noted and corrected in this edition. The life-to-date capacity factor of Ontario’s large wind farms considering only full power years is 29.0%.
PDF link: ontario-wind-farm-productivity-and-variability-by-inservice-year
Wind Power Can Be Wonderful
Tuesday, September 29th, 2009Exploiting wind power can be a triumph over adversity.
http://www.ted.com/talks/william_kamkwamba_how_i_harnessed_the_wind.html
There may be ways to turn industrial wind power from a subsidy sponge into a contender.
http://www.catchthewindinc.com/
Even the analysis of wind power can be beautiful.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-v7BrYu5_w
Wind power can be fun (albeit costly in this instance).
Presentation Arguing Against Feed-In Tariffs (FIT)
Thursday, September 24th, 2009The attached presentation, to a conference in Toronto held September 21st, argues that the Ontario FIT program is uneconomic, politically vulnerable, and likely to be short-lived. I specifically identify an urgent need for the IESO to present analysis on when wind power is likely to take over as first contingency for the purposes of operating reserve and for the OPA to present an update of the Integrated Power System Plan, so that the outlook for power development and power prices can be estimated within the uncertainty of the constituent elements.
PDF attached:euci-conference-presentation-by-tom-adams-re-fit-policy-design-final1
Greener Power Ingredient: Coal
Sunday, July 5th, 2009Many people debating greenhouse gas controls think they know that coal is our worst electricity source with respect to carbon dioxide emissions and that natural gas is about half as bad. Although replacing coal power with gas-fired power seems like an environmental winner, this simplistic generalization is often wrong. Eliminating coal-fired electricity will require replacing it with gas and because of the characteristics of our gas-fired stations, Ontario’s carbon dioxide emissions will rise.
This essay also addresses the suggestion from many environmental groups that Ontario should seek to maximize the use of gas in the form of high-efficiency cogeneration as opposed to mid-efficiency combined-cycle generators and low-efficiency simple-cycle generators. I note that the more cogeneration Ontario adds, the lower the potential penetration of wind power the power system can tolerate.
PDF of paper here:
WIND POWER IN ONTARIO: QUANTIFYING THE BENEFITS OF GEOGRAPHIC DIVERSITY
Wednesday, May 20th, 2009Using Ontario wind power production data, this study quantifies the benefits of positioning wind farms in geographically diverse locations to mitigate variability and smooth wind power’s contribution to electricity generation. Wind farm outputs are cross-correlated and graphed against the distances separating the farms. Results confirm that correlations between wind farm outputs decay with distance, but remain positive. Results agree with European studies but suggest that distance provides less smoothing of output in Ontario than in Europe. However, results disagree with aspects of a study of wind power integration in Ontario conducted by General Electric in 2006.
This study was co-authored by Tom Adams and Francois Cadieux. It was peer reviewed and published as part of the Engineering Institute of Canada 2nd Climate Change Technology Conference, May 12-15 2009, held at McMaster University.
PDF link:windpowergeodiversitybenefits_adams_cadieux-colour-graphs-and-citation