WIND farms could become more efficient after a breakthrough by scientists.
New insights into the fluctuations of wind energy have been discovered.
The amount of energy generated by renewables fluctuate. On particularly windy days, for example, surges in power generated by wind turbines have been known to overwhelm the electrical grid, causing power outages.
Dealing with the peaks and troughs of intermittent renewable energy will become increasingly challenging as governments try to phase out of more stable coal-powered energy sources.
But now Professor Mahesh Bandi, head of the collective interactions unit at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University, Japan, has used experimental wind plant data to explain the statistical nature of these fluctuations.
The study published in Physical Review Letters said wind speed patterns can be depicted as a spectrum on a graph. In the past, some scientists have argued that the power produced by geographically dispersed wind turbines in windy and calm locations at any one point in time will average out when they reach a centralised grid.
But Mr Bandi’s findings show that this phenomenon, known as “geographic smoothing”, only works to a certain extent. A surge in power at one wind turbine plant will coincide with the surge at a far-away plant within the same long time-scale eddy, meaning that the power they provide for the grid cannot be averaged out.
Mr Bandi said: “Understanding the nature of fluctuations in wind turbine power has immediate implications for economic and political decision making.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel