[ RadSafe ] World's Biggest Wind Park -Capacity Factor vs. Nuclear

[Flood, John]

James Salsman wrote:

>New wind power installations with shaping currently cost, on a 
>per-kilowatt-hour basis, about the same as new coal plants, 
>within a cent.

>Both wind and coal are substantially less expensive than new 
>nuclear plants on a cents/kWh basis, in some cases by half, 
>and that's not even counting the externalities of Price-Anderson 
>indemnification, toxic waste storage, and toxic byproduct disposal.

What cost are you talking about?  Any cost analysis that includes
operation and maintenance will find wind power costs more than coal,
gas, and hydro, even more than nuclear unless you get into worst case
spent fuel storage scenarios.  The cost of maintenance and repair of
hundreds or perhaps thousands of small individual generators spread over
hundreds of square miles in all kinds of weather is remarkably higher
than maintenance and repair of large turbines in indoor facilities.  It
is that maintenance cost that has driven so many wind farm operations
into bankruptcy.  Even the operators that acquired wind farms from
bankruptcy sales at ten cents on the dollar go bankrupt themselves.

Also, bear in mind that the load on a regional grid increases and
decreases in a diurnal pattern that changes with the seasons.  A
wind-based national system is incapable of following the demand curve,
whch means that a comprehensive regional or national wind system with
fairly steady output can serve as base production, but must be combined
with adjustable production to follow changes in demand that are commonly
a factor of 2-3 within one day for the hottest and coldest days.  If the
wind system cannot achieve a reasonably steady state output, it
realistically has to be limited to less than the margin above load for
the system.  Otherwise it becomes an immediate threat to the stability
of the grid.

Bob Flood