https://archive.ph/P75IQ
"Walking into the grid control room at
50Hertz, a Berlin-based utility, on
the morning of May 13th felt like walking onto the bridge of a spaceship:
screens full of data, an air of competent calm and the underlying sense of an
immense flow of power being guided on its journey. This hyper-secure site (and
its mirror in another location) are charged with controlling the flow of
electricity to 18m people in eastern and northern Germany.
Today the screens show 28% of that flow coming from wind farms and 24% from
solar panels. A decade ago the custodians of the grids which keep the rich
world’s lights on would have told you this was impossible. Renewables were too
troublesome, too hard to balance with demand moment by moment, too prone to
fluctuations in the frequency of the current they provided. In 2011 a symposium
of electricity mavens convened by mit concluded that “Too much electricity
generation from intermittent renewables is as much of a problem as too little
generation.”
This scepticism was understandable. Dirk Biermann, who is in charge of system
operations at 50Hertz, points out that grid operators “are very conservative
when it comes to system operations because, at any price, we have to make sure
that the electricity supply is maintained.” Nevertheless it was misplaced. The
grid 50Hertz oversees is quite capable of running a transmission grid with
50-60% wind and solar power.
And the progress is not over. The company aims to be able to handle a 100%
wind-and-solar grid by 2032. Mr Biermann sees that target as demanding—“We have
to speed up”—and anticipates “moments of tension” on the way. But he thinks it
will be done. Some places, after all, are already doing it, if only for fairly
short periods. Neighbouring Denmark has at times run its entire power grid on
wind power alone. At 3.39pm on April 3rd over 97% of California’s power came
from just wind and solar. A decade of technical, managerial and
systems-engineering progress has put the design and management of grids
dominated by renewables within the sober, risk-averse grasp of people who run
electric grids. What was once touted as a fundamental barrier to the transition
from fossil fuels has been done away with."
Via
FutureCrunch Jul 2, 2022:
https://futurecrunch.com/good-news-malaria-bullfighting-offshore-wind/
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
