Solarkent has produced the Renewable Energy Map UK – a online map that uses Google to show the renewable and alternate energy projects in the UK. At first glance the sheer number of projects and sites is amazing. There is a significant amount of this work in the UK and sites are evenly spread throughout the country.

Solarkent operates additional web sites and readers may be interested in exploring them.

Windguru enables users to view wind, water, wave and other meteorological information on-screen in real-time. Tracking several climatic variables, the product includes most regions of the world, although data is not included for all of them. Information is provided for most of Europe and North America.

ForWind, has expanded in Germany through the addition of the University of Bremen to the research group. ForWind conducts basic research into wind energy and provides education resources to students and persons interested in wind energy careers.

From the Centre -” ForWind was founded in 2003 through the support of the Ministry for Science and Culture of Lower Saxony. Since then, wind energy researchers at the Universities of Oldenburg and Hannover have worked together in cooperation. In 2009, the University of Bremen joined as a new partner. This event signifi cantly widened the research spectrum, forming a partnership of research unique at a national level.”

Ontario, Canada’s leader in wind energy and the country’s most populous province, plans to add a province-wide wind energy forecasting service by 2010. The service will be delivered by the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) group to help make wind power a more reliable energy source in the province. The new service dovetails nicely with the group’s wind tracker tool that shows the current output in Megawatts of the Province’s various wind farms.

The first German offshore project has gone live north of Borkum, a small island in the North Sea reports Der Spiegel. It is expacted that the country will continue to expand offshore wind growth in the future at a significant pace. The project is jointly financed by Vattenfall, E.on, and EWE energy companies.

Already Germany has about 12,500 wind generators across the country and recent announcements from the government have speculated that up to 50% of the country’s energy needs will be derived from the wind. The Borkum project is expected to be completed by the end og the year and 12 towers will rise at that time.

Many renewable energy sources provide intermittent power that can fluctuate with weather and time of day. Wind power can vary considerably with the seasons. Solar power is affected by cloud cover, and obviously can’t produce power at night. Hydro power is also somewhat variable dependent on rainfall levels. These fluctuations of power supply need to be factored much differently than the traditional power sources that can be dispatched and can be made to produce more power as demand increases.

As more of these intermittent energy sources come online, it becomes increasingly important to understand the base line of power that these sources can generate. Significant seasonal increases of renewable power  would allow a utility to decrease their power generation from less clean sources. Prolonged weather events  can curtail renewable power and must be planned for in order to avoid disruption in service.

Predicting Reliability

Historical weather data provide a key metric to predict power supply from renewable energy. The most effective strategy is to develop sophisticated and long-term weather models prior to renewable energy siting decisions. These models, along with  sensors at the power source, provide a means for close monitoring and performance evaluation.

Different sources of renewable energy require different levels of modeling and prediction. Some renewable sources are very variable and others are much more consistent.

Wind power is much more variable than solar. Wind speeds, wind direction, and air density all factor into wind turbine performance. Turbines depend on consistent mid-range wind speeds, because if the wind is too low it can’t generate electricity and if it’s too high the turbines need to be shut down to avoid damage.

Solar energy is an easier energy source to predict, because the amount of light energy in a specific spot is fairly consistent, with some seasonal fluctuation, but greatest intensity in times of greatest demand. Power producers are working on ways to extend the availability of solar power after dark by deploying such ideas as thermal power generation and storage. Generating steam from the sun rather than direct conversion to electricity provides a more consistent and longer lasting power.

Hydro power is one of the more consistent and reliable renewable energy sources. Hydro plants that rely only on river flow aren’t all that common, with most drawing on a water reservoir for more consistent power.

Location Factor

Location is the most important factor when determining the variability or consistency of renewable energy. Siting renewable energy close to the source, but also close to demand, is a problem that require spatial analysis and modeling in order to optimize the performance and predictability of the power source.

Areas with consistent wind are typically at higher elevations or closer to the coast, and sea breezes are much more predictable and consistent than breezes on land. Solar power relies on clear skies, and some areas are much more ideal than others given their amount of sunshine. Hydro power relies on consistent and abundant water sources in areas that aren’t susceptible to drought.

A single wind turbine will be much more variable than a large array of turbines that are gridded together. Solar power can be complementary to wind, because wind is often strongest at night and during cloudy weather. Wind can also be a good complement to hydro power. As more renewable energy comes online, there will be a number of strategies deployed to balance intermittent supply with demand, and to align different sources to ease fluctuation.

The larger the electric grid, the less a factor intermittent power is to the overall grid. But with large percentages of renewable power on smaller grids, the grid design needs to made more intelligent and adaptable in order to manage fluctuations.

The viability and reliability of prediction models will improve over time as more data is collected and analyzed. The most variable, and most efficient, source of wind power is relatively new and the models are improving significantly each year.

Forecasting and predicting demand and supply are going to be of increasing importance as our power generation sources become more diverse and more distributed. Matching power demand with a wide variety of power sources also calls for a more sophisticated and intelligent transmission and distribution network.

Resources

3Tier, a company that does global renewable energy assessment and forecasting

Siting Renewable Energy Facilities: A Spatial Analysis of Promises and Pitfalls, Shalini Vajjhala, Feb. 2006

The Canadian Wind Energy Atlas is produced by Environment Canada. It includes information about dynamics across Canada as well as a map server that displays the information. Methodology for collecting the information is outlined and links together with updated news are also available.

In a report released today by the UK Institute for Public Policy Research the case is being made that the UK must act immediately if it is to develop it’s wind resources.  Another paper mentions that the UK, although having the most available wind resources, still only has one wind energy manufacturer, and only 700 people employed in the total wind industry.

The British Wind Energy Association (BWEA) has launched it’s submission to the UK government prior to the upcoming budget noting that action is needed to support renewable energy. The submission comes as the economic downturn is impacting proposed projects.

“Maria McCaffery, BWEA Chief Executive said: “Large scale wind deployment is vital to reaching the UK’s goal of generating up to 40% of our electricity from renewables by 2020. The current economic climate has caused a number of developers to put projects on hold, threatening the UK’s targets, and leaving the country exposed to volatile fossil fuel prices. Building a clean energy sector in the UK is an important part of our economic recovery, and we need to maximize the opportunities to develop sustainable energy projects which would otherwise be delayed by the recession.”

The European Parliament has agreed to invest Euro 565 Million into offshore wind reports EWEA. The EU has an energy Economic Recovery Plan totalling Euro 5 Billion.

From EWEA – “The wind energy sector is pleased with the effort to unlock Europe’s massive offshore wind energy resource, while encouraging investments in new electricity grids. Still, I have doubts whether the vast amounts of money being allocated to coal CCS will contribute to the EU’s economic recovery, since the technology will not be commercially viable this side of 2020. EWEA therefore supports the Parliament’s proposal to allocate any unspent money to renewable energy technologies, including onshore wind power, which can be employed immediately,” said Christian Kjaer, Chief Executive of the European Wind Energy Association.