Environment & Energy
In reply to the discussion: Intermittency Of Renewables?… Not So Much [View all]PamW
(1,825 posts)jpak,
Once again, jpak; you demonstrate that you don't understand the issue of intermittency with regard to non-dispatchable renewables.
As long as the non-dispatchable renewables are a small portion of the generators on the grid; less than 20; there is no problem with the intermittency of the renewables.
If non-dispatchable renewables are <20% of the generating capacity; then the dispachable generators are >80% of the generation capacity.
Unlike non-dispatchable renewables; the dispatchable generators have a feedback mechanism controlling the generator's "throttle", and hence are designed to compensate for variations in the demand/load. The variation of due to the intermittency of the non-dispatchable renewables looks like a fluctuation in the demand/load which the dispatchable generators are designed to compensate for.
As with most electric systems, the percentage of non-dispatchable renewables in the FPL system is small. Therefore, the dispatchable generators in the FPL system can compensate for the variability of the non-dispatchable renewables and Mr. Olivera presently doesn't have a problem, and states so.
Evidently, jpak doesn't understand that the problem does NOT surface now when non-dispatchable renewables are such a meager portion of the energy supply mix. The problem is one to be faced in the FUTURE when non-dispatchable renewables are a larger component of the energy generation mix.
Both energy CEOs ALLUDE to this FUTURE problem:
"I think you gotta be at a really huge scale of solar before that becomes an issue."
-- Armando Olivera
I agree with my colleague that near-term theres no, no issue with grid stability with deploying solar.
-- Robert Powers
Both CEOs are saying that near-term, when non-dispatchable renewables are a meager component of the energy generation system; there is no problem because the dispatchable generators can compensate for the non-dispatchable renewables, as they ( the dispatchables ) are designed to do.
The problem with the variation in the output of non-dispatchable renewables comes in the FUTURE if we follow the lame suggestions to go "100% non-dispatchable renewable", as some here advocate.
THEN you don't have the dispatchable generators, coal, gas, hydro, and nuclear; to rely on for correcting the spurious variations in the output of non-dispatchable renewables.
Mischaracterizing the problem by stating that there is no problem when non-dispatchable renewables are a small component of the generating capacity, and thereby ERRONEOUSLY concluding that non-dispatchable renewable variability won't be a problem when non-dispatchable renewables are a higher percentage of the energy mix; is NOT HELPFUL for the forum readers, and FALSELY trivializes a future obstacle to the use of non-dispatchable renewables as a high percentage of our energy supply.
PamW