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Re: Denmark and wind generation



Denmark:

Total Energy Use: 254,444 x 10^6 kWh

Total Electrical Production: 54,981 x 10^6 kWh

Total Electrical Use: 39,582 x 10^5 kWh

Should that be 10^6?

Fossil fuel use for electricity: 43,325 x 10^6 kWh

I take 2/3 of the 43,325 from the total: 254,444-.67*43,325 = 225,416 to
roughly account for the thermal efficiency problem. Then 39582/225416 would
give 17.6% electrical. Sorry about the mistake, but my main point is still
that replacing _electrical_ generation with renewables only addresses a very
small part of the overall problem of fossil fuel dependence|global warming
concerns|finite fuel supplies. All discussions of renewables for the future
need to talk about the TOTAL energy use.

Rick

Rick, I don't know anyone else in the world who measures total energy
in kWh, but to humor you, here goes...

Total electrical energy generated by wind in Denmark: 4500 x 10^6 kWh
(for the year 2000, from http://www.windpower.org/publ/annu0001.pdf).

Total fossil fuel or nuclear energy that would be needed to generate
this much electricity: about 13,500 x 10^6 kWh.

13,500 / 254,444 = 0.053.

Therefore, if we use the accounting method used by EIA and everyone
else, Denmark effectively gets 5.3% of its total energy from wind.
If they triple their wind generation over the next 30 years as planned,
this fraction will rise above 15%.

Maybe you think 15% is "very small". I don't. I agree that, given
the current mix of fuels for electricity generation, wind power
doesn't much alleviate the shorter-term problems with finite fuel
supplies, or with dependence on imported oil. But it does cut
into greenhouse gas emissions, a large fraction of which are
currently from coal-fired power plants.

Dan