Turbulent Character

Turbulent Character - Wind Farm Realities: 

In March 2013 Milan et al published a study titled “Turbulent Character of Wind Energy“. In it they studied the nature of second-by-second fluctuations and came to the conclusion that in order to successfully integrate wind energy into the grid you had to understand and mitigate these fluctuations. Unfortunately, there were no answers as to how this might be accomplished, and these authors cannot be dismissed as unqualified and/or anti-wind cranks. They are part of the Center for Wind Energy Research, Institute of Physics, University of Oldenburg, and this study was published in Physical Review Letters. Their goal is to find ways to successfully integrate real wind into a real grid, and Germany has had its share of problems with grid instability as they lead the world into this new technology. Problems that may not have practical solutions, which again raises the question of why we’re spending billions without knowing.
A rather good summary of the paper was published in phys.org and another on Oldenburg’s site. The graphic that appears in these summaries shows a tracing of the second-by-second fluctuations of output vs. wind speed for one turbine and it is quite remarkable. You’d think that given a certain wind speed you’d get a certain output, but this is not the case.

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