May 14 2008

Some Hot Air on Wind Power

Posted by: Keely Wachs

Wind power could provide 20% of U.S. electricity needs by 2030, according to a new DOE report released this week.

The report, titled "20% Wind Energy by 2030: Increasing Wind Energy's Contribution to U.S. Electricity Supply," identifies the steps that need to be addressed to reach the 20% goal.  According to the Wall Street Journal's Environmental Capital blog, obstacles include reducing the cost of wind technologies, building new transmission infrastructure, and enhancing domestic manufacturing capability.

Wind currently accounts for about three percent of PG&E's energy mix and we've added more than 250 MW to our future contract mix over the past nine months.  That means that we have 1061 MW of wind energy under contract or delivered.

However, as much as we believe in adding clean renewable sources to our mix, wind poses a bit of a challenge for all of California's utilities.

Wind blows at night in California, which means that we're getting a renewable source during a time when we don't need a significant amount of energy.  In the past, we've been able to store wind energy via the Helms Hydroelectric facility to be used during the day time peak demand hours (roughly 11 am to 7 pm).  We use the clean wind power to pump water uphill to a reservoir, where it is stored.  Then during the day, we generate electricity by running the water through the hydroelectric facility.  It's truly an amazing engineering feat, yet requires a significant capital investment. 

We're also looking at electric vehicles as a way to store off-peak generated wind energy.  At some point we could see plug-in electric hybrid vehicles (PHEVs) serving as mobile storage facilities. Our customers would plug their PHEV in to a 120 volt outlet at home during the night following their daily commute.  Then each car would sell back the energy to the grid when needed during the day.  The car would communicate with the utility, so that it knows exactly how much to take depending on the driver's needs. 

We're a few years off from this scenario, but we've been doing some interesting partner work with Google and Tesla, and discussing the need for more electric vehicles (EVs) with the major U.S. automakers. 

With advancements in battery technology we could also have onsite storage capacity, whereby wind energy is stored at the generation facility and brought on the grid during the day when demand is highest. We're also working with venture capitalists and entrepreneurs to develop this market. 

Whether it's onsite or through PHEVs, it's clear that we'll need improved storage capacity to truly take advantage of California's abundant, yet off-peak wind supply.  It should be interesting to see how this plays out. 

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