Comment posted Water Resources (Scotland) Bill introduced – issues arising by John Sinclair.
My understanding is there is a limit on how much wind power can be connected live to the grid, go above and the grid becomes unstable. Hydro powered by a dam is very stable and the limiting factor is the volume of water. Correct me if I am wrong but Cruachan has started pumping and generating at the same time and a new cavern is in the planning stage along with building a bigger dam. All hydro stations are being reassessed for environmental damage, in America some have been dismantled http://vimeo.com/31305629. There are many good solutions out there, some will not make corporation the profit and will undermined their monopoly.
John Sinclair also commented
- “madness” well put.
- There are two tunnels feeding four generators and one tail race. So in theory two can generate and two can pump. Interesting to know the hydraulics of water flow in the tail race if they do pump and generate at same time. As I said its what I was told, yes I do find it hard to beleave, but the “unstable” wind generation has brought in a new vairable in to the market. Yet again someone in the know could correct me, years ago I read the maximum of wind power on a grid could only be 16% and then the excess would be exported to a more stable grid. Are we not being conected up to Norway. I may be getting my facts wrong, but there should be an open and transparent debate on energy production.
- Reading my comment does not make sense, but the whole nature of the market has evolved. When I was told they were pumping and generating at the same time I did not beleave either. Two different people have told me about the expansion, I know that still does not make it true. Hopefully someone in the known will correct me if I am wrong.
- Very interesting, trying to get my head round it, Tom Johnstone (After leaving Parliament he was Chairman of the Scottish National Forestry Commission (1945-48), Chairman of North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board (1946-59), Chancellor of Aberdeen University (1951-65) and governor of the British Broadcasting Board (1955-56).) led the way at one point for Hydro Power, I might be wrong, no public money was spent, the profit paid of the debt very quickly, then sold of cheaply by Thatcher to give us all cheap energy.
Recent comments by John Sinclair
- Struan and then some: the revelation of planned elderly care provision in Argyll and Bute
Very well put Dougie, what is free, give all OAP free bus passes, those with bigger incomes we tax more, therefore they still pay for their “free” bus pass. Nothing is FREE, everything has to be paid for. - Struan and then some: the revelation of planned elderly care provision in Argyll and Bute
not posted a long time, http://www.anfieldroad.com/dont-buy-the-sun/ - Blair still Bliar, still trying to flog his tainted goods
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOP2V_np2c0 - SNH accused of costing Jura jobs
http://www.imdb.com/video/wab/vi3337921817/
enjoy - Oban Concern for Palestine group grows
It is a very serious acusation to accuse people of behaving like the Nazis. My mother lived through WWII and many of the boys she grew up with at her school left to fight the Nazis and many didn’t come back. Recently I spent an evening with her tracing all their graves, so I do not think what she said was done lightly but with a heavy heart. I also stated that the Palestinians are treated badly by other Arabs, this was witness by someone who I have known all my life. The way in which the Palestinians are being treated is wrong, no spin or lies can change the truth, open your eyes.
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Very interesting, trying to get my head round it, Tom Johnstone (After leaving Parliament he was Chairman of the Scottish National Forestry Commission (1945-48), Chairman of North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board (1946-59), Chancellor of Aberdeen University (1951-65) and governor of the British Broadcasting Board (1955-56).) led the way at one point for Hydro Power, I might be wrong, no public money was spent, the profit paid of the debt very quickly, then sold of cheaply by Thatcher to give us all cheap energy.
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‘since all modern stations use the pumped return system’ – if this is a suggestion that pumped storage is the order of the day, I’d be surprised because a good few recent hydro power projects seem to have been ‘run of the river’ which, by definition, can’t be pumped storage.
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My understanding is there is a limit on how much wind power can be connected live to the grid, go above and the grid becomes unstable. Hydro powered by a dam is very stable and the limiting factor is the volume of water. Correct me if I am wrong but Cruachan has started pumping and generating at the same time and a new cavern is in the planning stage along with building a bigger dam. All hydro stations are being reassessed for environmental damage, in America some have been dismantled http://vimeo.com/31305629. There are many good solutions out there, some will not make corporation the profit and will undermined their monopoly.
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Are you sure about this, John? – pumping & generating at the same time doesn’t seem to make any sense, and building a bigger dam seems highly improbable, as 10% of the reservoir replenishment comes from feeder canals tapping streams around the mountain – and they’d be too low if the dam was higher, whereas there doesn’t appear to be room to enlarge the reservoir by building a new dam significantly ‘downstream’ from the existing one.
It’s designed to sell power to the grid at times of peak demand, and replenish the reservoir by using cheap off-peak power to drive the turbines as pumps. Apparently it also provides an almost instant (2 minutes from standing, 30 seconds if spinning) emergency power supply to the grid to ‘kick start’ any other power stations in the event of a major shut-down preventing them from drawing the electricity from the grid that they would need to power-up again.
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Reading my comment does not make sense, but the whole nature of the market has evolved. When I was told they were pumping and generating at the same time I did not beleave either. Two different people have told me about the expansion, I know that still does not make it true. Hopefully someone in the known will correct me if I am wrong.
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You can pump and generate at the same time. From memory, there are four turbines in the turbine hall under Cruachan. You could have two pumping while two are generating though I’m not sure why that would be desirable.
As to the amount of wind that can be connected to the grid, I was under the misapprehension that there is a finite limit to how much wind can be connected but the experience from Spain suggests that, though there may be an upper limit, it is much higher than was previously thought and the answer is to have either lots of pumped storage hydro or to have excellent interconnectors so you can draw power from adjacent regions when wind generation in your own region is depressed.
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Mind you – that depends on their being separate access tunnels to the turbines. If all turbines are fed by the same tunnel then you couldn’t pump and generate at the same time.
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There are two tunnels feeding four generators and one tail race. So in theory two can generate and two can pump. Interesting to know the hydraulics of water flow in the tail race if they do pump and generate at same time. As I said its what I was told, yes I do find it hard to beleave, but the “unstable” wind generation has brought in a new vairable in to the market. Yet again someone in the know could correct me, years ago I read the maximum of wind power on a grid could only be 16% and then the excess would be exported to a more stable grid. Are we not being conected up to Norway. I may be getting my facts wrong, but there should be an open and transparent debate on energy production.
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Stealth entry by the back door eh…you wee rascals.
As I said months ago the Scottish Government mean to flood more glens to provide pumped storage facilities for energy storage, energy generated by large commercial windfarms.
Given the huge environmental footprint of resevoirs of any type…this needs to be taken into consideration when folk quote wind as having a small environmental footprint…it does not…whether we are talking conventional back up or pumped storage…large scale commercial wind causes large scale damage to our uninhabited more natural locations.
I also hasten to add that the recently anounced connection to Norway will also use their spare storage facility or planned storage facility….much as Denmark is doing now…generate/export/store/release/buy back…madness.
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“madness” well put.
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EURELECTRIC position “Trade-offs between environmental legislation and the low-carbon agenda”The 2009 Renewables Energy Directive stipulates the need to support “the use of energy storage systems for integrated intermittent production of energy from renewable sources.” (wind) Yet regulatory obstacles such as disproportionate implementation and too broad interpretation of environmental legislation are impeding the further development of hydropower in Europe”
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Again Euroelectrics position:”Policymakers must address the conflicting objectives of the low-carbon agenda and the environmental agenda”
So there we have it, the big businesses are trying their damdest to de-regulate or change current environmental legislation to allow damage to the environment…talk about madness…Not content with messing up the planet already…they intend to mess it up some more…please do not give me the cop out of “this is to protect the planet” what is the point in europe destroying more wilderness areas to counteract US/China/India emmissions when they are the current culprits. Bild a wind farm/sponsor a flooded glen !!!
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