No reason to celebrate Spanish wind power "record"

The European wind power lobby is celebrating the fact wind turbines in Spain at 1:37 in the early hours of 19 April accounted for 61% of the country´s energy demand:


Last month wind power in Sclpain reached new heights. This extract from the Spanish wind energy association’s (AEE) blog ‘somos eolicos’ highlights what happened…

However, this "achievement" is less than remarkable, when one realises that it happened on a particularly stormy day -  and in the middle of the night, when energy demand is extremely low:

 Iberian benchmark power prices bucked a pre-weekend downtrend in wholesale dealing on Friday as market-moving wind power retreated after setting new records during stormy weather the day before.

Spanish wind parks generated 16,636 megawatts on Thursday, according to national grid operator REE, easily surpassing a previous record of 14,752 MW set on Nov. 9, 2010.

Earlier in the day, wind power accounted for 61 percent of demand In Spain, which typically accounts for 85 percent of volume in the Iberian Electricity Market (Mibel).

Already on the following day the party was over:

By midday on Friday, wind power was down to 11,269 MW, which made costlier coal- and gas-burning plants work harder.


Read the entire article here

Wind power is not going to be a serious energy alternative anywhere. When the wind does not blow - and that happens usually e.g. when it is very cold outside - the turbines produce little or no energy. And in stormy weather they produce too much.  It´s just as simple as that.