New Wind Power Record in Spain: 40.8% of Total Demand!
by Michael Graham Richard, Ottawa, Canada 
on 03.31.08
Last year we wrote about Spain's wind power production record, which was 27% at the time. That seemed like a lot, but a week ago, Spain's wind turbines produced 40.8% of total demand, or 9,862 megawatts of power.
There's a catch, though. The previous record was 10,032 megawatts, but that was 28% of total consumption because it happened during a week day and demand was higher. So this new record is a relative record, while the previous one stands as the absolute best in electricity produced. Still, it's impressive and we hope that others will pay attention and realize that it can be done.
Spain, which along with Germany and Denmark, is among the three biggest producers of wind power in the European Union, is aiming to triple the amount of energy it derives from renewable sources by 2020.
Spain's wind power industry currently enjoys a 30% annual growth rate.
In July the government approved legislation to allow offshore wind parks to be set up along the nation's vast coastline to take advantage of stronger, steadier coastal winds.
::Spain’s wind power at full force , ::Spain's Wind Power Reached 41 Percent Over The Weekend, via ::New Record: Wind Powers 40% Of Spain
See also: ::Wind Power Is Spain's Top Energy Source This Week, ::Spain Proves Wind Power Works, ::Spain: Renewable Energy Powerhouse
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At what point can you no longer add more wind power, as you have to have a base load for the times when the wind doesn't blow?
Also, how inter tied are the power transmission of the EU, as in can Spain get power on windless days from France for example, and on days with excess power, can France get power from Spain's wind energy?
Yes, most of europe have interconnects which allow electricity to flow between borders (though you pay for the tranmission).
France is a net exporter of power because of their nuclear capability.
I forget the size of the interconnects, but they are not 'large' enough to support a country entirely via an external source.
The connection between France and Spain is pretty small actually - Spain only imports around 3% of its power from France (there's very little capacity on the connection). It exports more - to France, Morocco and Portugal - so it there was a problem with a windless day, it's more likely that exports would be curtailed than imports dramatically increased.
So, as we rapidly approach the moment when building industial-scale renewable power generation is no longer more expensive than fossil fuels (woohoo!), how do we deal with the problem of intermittent power? I can't imagine a world in which we don't want to have a couple of days or weeks worth of energy on hand in case problems occur.
I get confused very, very easily.
Matt said, "France is a net exporter of power because of their nuclear capability."
Bridget said, "Spain only imports around 3% of its power from France" but then said, "It exports more - to France,..."
As I said I get confused very easily.
If a point is reached that excess wind energy is being produced, the excess could be used to produce hydrogen which could be stored and burned to generate electricity when there is not enough wind
I think there is a current method to store unused electricity (if you have hydro-power installations) - you use the electricity to pump water back up to the reservoirs.
Barton, J.; Infield, D. 2004. Energy Storage and Its Use With Intermittent Renewable Energy. IEEE Transaction on Energy Conversion 19, 441-448.
A simple probabilistic method has been developed to predict the ability of energy storage to increase the penetration of intermittent embedded renewable generation (ERG) on weak electricity grids and to enhance the value of the electricity generated by time-shifting delivery to the network. This paper focuses on the connection of wind generators at locations where the level of ERG would be limited by the voltage rise. Short-term storage, covering less than 1 h, offers only a small increase in the amount of electricity that can be absorbed by the network. Storage over periods of up to one day delivers greater energy benefits, but is significantly more expensive. Different feasible electricity storage technologies are compared for their operational suitability over different time scales. The value of storage in relation to power rating and energy capacity has been investigated so as to facilitate appropriate sizing.
There is a lot of data on the interconnection of wind power on the G A website. Basicall in the US it is not a major issue, as we nationwide have reasonable large complete & interconnected systems. It a a larger issue in smaller systems, such as spain, where the interconnectivity & grid are probably smaller.