Wind in Alberta bottoms out three times over the last week

Brian Zinchuk

Brian Zinchuk is editor and owner of Pipeline Online

Wind turbines near Drumheller, Alberta. Photo by Katrina Zinchuk

But climate crusaders in Saskatchewan say it should replace coal-fired power generation

As climate crusaders take the Government to Saskatchewan to court over its plan to rejuvenate its coal-fired power fleet, wind output in Alberta has fallen to 0.1 per 1 per cent cent, and 1.3 per cent on three different days over the course of the last week.

Those seeking to kill coal are saying instead Saskatchewan should turn to wind and solar for power generation, according to their legal filing.

According to minute-by-minute data published by the Alberta Electric System Operator, at approximately 10 a.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 19, wind output in Alberta fell to 6 megawatts out of a nameplate capacity of 5,688. That’s 0.1 per cent capacity.

At 10:15 a.m. on Saturday, Aug 23, wind output in Alberta hit 60 megawatts, or 1 per cent capacity.

And amid heat warnings on Monday, Aug. 25, at 4:20 p.m. wind output in Alberta hit 74 megawatts, or 1.3 per cent capacity.

This despite Alberta having doubled its wind power generation fleet from Jan. 1, 2022 to today, with 1722 wind turbines at last count. (That number may now be higher, as Pipeline Online has not had the opportunity in recent months to check for updates.)

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Here’s what the “originating document” filed July 18 in the injunction to stop the rejuvenation of the coal fleet said about wind power generation:

The IPCC also found with high confidence that “[e]nergy generation diversification (e.g., via wind, solar, small-scale hydropower) and demand-side management (e.g., storage and energy efficiency improvements) can increase energy reliability and reduce vulnerabilities to climate change”

And

Renewable energy from solar and wind is proven and ready to deploy at scale now. Scotland now generates 97% of its electricity from renewable sources. The Energy Institute released the 74th edition of the Statistical Review of World Energy, which analyses key trends in the global energy sector for 2024. Notably highlights include:

1. Wind and solar continued to be the fastest-growing areas of the energy system increasing by 16% in 2024.
2. Generation from wind and solar increased its share of total global generation from 13% to 15% in 2024. The past ten years have witnessed a fourfold increase in their combined output with wind broadly responsible for 55% and solar 45% of their joint output.
3. Over the past ten years, coal’s share of China’s generation fleet has fallen from 70% to 58%. In India, its share has remained fixed at around 75%.
4. In 2024, grid-scale battery electricity storage system (BESS) capacity more than doubled, rising 113% to reach 126 GW. China led the way in its deployment adding 67% of the increase. It now hosts 60% of total installed BESS capacity followed by the US at 20% and the UK at around 5%.

Numerous methods of electrical storage exist and could be implemented in Saskatchewan to support intermittent generation from renewables like solar and wind. In addition to energy storage, many jurisdictions have successfully deployed demand response and overcapacity strategies leading to grid penetration of wind and solar renewables with respect to total demand exceeding 33% in Denmark, Netherlands, Ireland, Spain, Germany, and Portugal, as of 2024, for example. The ceiling of what is possible with renewable solar and wind energy is constantly rising and Saskatchewan is presently far below the ceiling of what is possible, despite having the among the best solar and wind resources in Canada.

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With reference to Scotland and the United Kingdom, according to Winderful.uk, yes, indeed, there are times when wind output makes up 61 per cent of the UK’s electricity demand, at 12,503 megawatts at 6:55 p.m. GMT on Aug. 25. But just one day earlier, at 3:35 a.m., Sunday, Aug. 24, wind output was 651 megawatts, or 2 per cent of the UK’s energy needs. That’s a variance of barely any power generation at all to over half in less than two days.

Winderful.uk

Editor’s note:

Nuclear advocate Dr. Chris Keefer (@Dr_Keefer) on the Pipeline Online Podcast Tuesday, Aug. 26 at 1 p.m. Live on Facebook, X and YouTube.

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