Can you help me with some research into Wind Turbines?
I’m at the initial stages of some research into wind turbines, around the topic of claimed and actual efficiency. To that end I’m trying to get hold of accurate information on the UK’s:
- 1) Current total installed Wind capacity (that’s the nominal capacity - i.e. that claimed by the operators)
- 2) The number (and, optionally, siting) of Wind Turbines. I’m only concerned with industrial turbines, i.,e. those which contribute to the generation statistics.
- 3) The total area given over to Wind turbines. It’s true that land used for turbines can be used for other purposes, however I want to work out the overall “footprint” of the boundaries of wind farms. For various reasons this might not be calculable.
- 4) Nominal wind generation capacity over time
- 5) Historic actual electricity generation and demand (broken down by generation type, e.g. coal, gas, wind, nuclear)
The fundamental question I want to try to answer is what area of land (and/or sea) is required to generate an arbitrary level of power, reliably, 24/7. The main factors that feed into that are the space requirements of wind turbines and their actual capacity (as opposed to their nominal capacity or even their estimated capacity).
So far I have identified the following resources which appear to cover (4) and some of (5):
Balancing Mechanism Reporting System (BMRS) realtime and historical generation and demand data.
U.K. National Grid Status a site presenting the BMRS data in a more accessible form, with a download of 5-minute demand/supply snapshots running back to mid 2011.
Sustainable Energy without the hot air online version of the 2008 book by David MacKay.
(edit to add: The National Grid Wind Power Operation summary page states that in January 2013 wind capacity was 5.5Gw, however it’s not clear if that is nominal capacity or average capacity, a difference which could make a significant difference to the calculation.)
Plus a large number of blogs and other sites of questionable authority which I’m reluctant to use unless I can verify their accuracy.
Can anyone suggest sources for the missing pieces?
Please note: this blog currently gets lots of spam comments, and so I am forced to post moderate. I’m not at my desk 24/7 and so it might take a while for comments to be approved. Please be patient, but if you post a comment and think I might have missed it please feel free to contact me @th3Derek on twitter.
A really worthwhile project - good luck and I look forward to UK figures with which to bombard my MP and the UK Government,
Brian Johnson
Comment by Brian Johnson — March 16, 2013 @ 6:55 am
Good luck with you project Derek. As a start, here are a few web sites which you may find useful
http://www.renewableuk.com/en/renewable-energy/wind-energy/onshore-wind/index.cfm (number of onshore turbines)
http://www.bmreports.com/bsp/bsp_home.htm (National Grid data)
http://www.ref.org.uk/energy-data (wind farm subsidies, location and capacity factors)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/9645593/Interactive-map-every-wind-farm-site-in-the-UK.html location of windfarms in UK)
I have more detailed maps but they relate only to Scotland and some include small scale (e.g.on farms) turbines.
As far as I’m aware the total UK wind capacity is of the order of 8400MW - although when you look at the national grid data on above web site this shows only 7136MW. This is because the NG only monitors/meters wind at the voltage level they are responsible for - 400kv and 275kv (except in Scotland where they meter input at 132kv - for historical reasons). Below these voltage levels the grid is managed my District Networks ( of which there are 14) and the source of generation is not “seen” by the NG - and, as such, are describes as embedded. Most of the wind input on the NG web site relates to Scotland since most wind generation is metered at 132kv level. I hope this is not too obtuse? This explains why the NG data only shows 7136MW when there is a capacity of more than 8400MW.
I’ve prattled on enough for now but don’t hesitate to get back to me if you think that I could be of further assistance
Regards
George
Comment by George Lindsay — March 18, 2013 @ 2:34 pm
[…] received quite a bit of help from various people on twitter and in comments to this blog post and have managed to get hold of some figures which I hope are accurate relating to the installed […]
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