30 Fairmont Park Lane S
Lethbridge, AB
T1K 7H7
Phone: (403) 328-1804
Saturday, July 16, 2005
The Editor
The Lethbridge Herald
P.O. Box 670
Lethbridge
AB, T1J 3Z7
Dear Editor,
Ric Swihart’s article on wind farms misleads readers on the interaction of wind turbines and the power grid. (“Wind farm founder has a vision for the future”, Herald, Monday, June 27, B4).
He notes that early windmill generators “required a large bank of batteries to store electricity for times the wind didn’t blow”. He then states that “Today, the electricity flows into the TransAlta power grid to be used where and when needed.”
Mr. Swihart’s vision of the power grid is incorrect. It does not store electricity to be used “when needed”. It does allow other sources of electricity such as natural gas, water power, or coal plants to provide electricity when wind turbines are routinely idled by lack of wind.
Wind turbines require some form of energy storage if they are to provide reliable electricity on their own. There is some minor capability to substitute electricity from water stored in dams in Alberta and BC. There are no significant energy storage systems connected to the Alberta power grid allowing electricity from wind turbines to be provided “where and when needed”.
Providing the energy storage capacity enabling wind turbines to be major producers of electricity requires another extremely expensive vision. Can readers see tens of thousands of wind turbines arrayed along the mountains coupled with dams, storage reservoirs and water pump/turbine units in the valleys? That is one way to store energy from wind and produce electricity for times when the wind doesn’t blow.
Yours truly,
Duane Pendergast