Oregon is planning to build the largest wind farm in the world, 303 turbines that will produce 909 MW -- double the current wind capacity in the state. It will be on the northern side of the state near the Columbia River, out past the Dalles -- Gilliam and Morrow counties.
Oregon's total electricity consumption in 2006 was 6100 MW, or about 1640 W/person. (Per capita = 14,400 kW-hr/yr.) So this wind power would represent a decent chunk of that.
I hope it can't be seen from the gorge. That area is one of the most beautiful places on earth.
ReplyDeleteAny idea what the capital cost is?
Expected utilization rate?
Resulting cost per kwhr?
By the way, ignoring cost, I think wind is a very good match with PHEV.
ReplyDeletePHEV charging can smooth hour to hour and day to day wind output fluctuations. Of course, one needs demand management of PHEV charging on the grid.
Even if wind was down for a week at a time I could still use my PHEV. I would just have to run on gas until the wind started blowing again.
Similarly, CSP is a pretty good match for AC load. CSP doesn't need to be 24/7 to be useful. However, the cost is still way to high for CSP to be base load.
For base load we have coal or nuclear (gas is too expensive). Theoretically wind or solar with thermal storage could be base load. However, that really increases the cost.