Germans Get Paid To Consume Surplus Energy From Wind Farms
8 May 2010 | Wind Power | 1 Comment
A rather strange consequence of the inability of electricity providers to store the surplus energy gained from wind power occurs in northern Germany, where local inhabitants are getting paid for “forgetting” the lights on. The country’s 21,000 wind turbines produces so much power that the providers were “forced” to lower the bills in order to use this “extra” energy.
At times, windmills were even temporarily turned off, which sounds pretty unreasonable for a energy operator. It seems these companies have alone done them self harm, as total spending money for electricity in Germany will be shortened by 5 billion euros in a few years.
Germany has a very high penetration rate for wind farms, which now contributes to as much as 7.5 percent to the country’s power grid, double the amount from 2002. The average for the EU is about 4.8 and 1 percent in the US. This status is obtained while the windmills staying active only a third of time.
As companies see they revenue shrinking as a result of the unpredictability of weather, the solution may be found in transmitting the surplus energy more to the south, in more industrialized regions. Another idea is store the energy. In Northern Europe, Denmark is using the wind power to pump water into Norwegian and Swedish basins only to be later released to operate hydroelectric power plants when windmills are not functional.
Tags: electricity, energy operators, germans, hydroelectric, power plant, surplus, wind farms, wind power, windmills
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