Register

Peak Oil is You


Donate Bitcoins ;-) or Paypal :-)


Page added on March 11, 2014

Bookmark and Share

Is Natural Gas-Fired Electricity An Intermittent Resource?

Is Natural Gas-Fired Electricity An Intermittent Resource? thumbnail

Wind power is only available when the wind is blowing. Similarly, cloudy skies means less solar power.

The use of renewable energy resources for generating electric power is limited by the fact that renewable resources are not always available.

This is why renewable energy is commonly described as an “intermittent” energy resource.

Intermittency, or “ variability,” is renewable energy’s Achilles heel.

Intermittent resources are considered potentially problematic because the output from individual units may vary widely in response to variation in available wind and solar energy, which can only be predicted to a moderate degree of accuracy.

The assumption seems to be that non-renewable energy resources – namely, fossil fuels – are not intermittent.

If the past three months have taught us anything, it is that not all fossil fuels are created equal in terms of availability.

Unlike coal and fuel oil, natural gas cannot be stored in large amounts onsite at power plants. The molecules that comprise natural gas move about 30 miles of pipeline every hour.

That may be why regional grid operators are creating new categories and classifications for gas-fired power plants.

Consider the new category – “Generation at Risk Due to Gas Supply Issues” – created by the Independent System Operator for New England in February for planning future capacity needs in the New England Power Pool in early 2015.

The category includes gas-fired generators “expected to be at risk during cold weather conditions or gas pipeline maintenance outages.”

The ISO-NE projects that nearly 3.5 gigawatts of gas-fired power plants in New England will be at risk losing gas supply from one of the five interstate pipelines serving New England in January 2015.

During the afternoon of January 7, 2014, six natural-gas fired generators in New England, totaling roughly 1,500 megawatts (MW) of capacity, were unable to procure natural gas to generate electric power.

Despite a compressor failure on the Texas Eastern system at Delmont, PA, the other four pipelines were operating at or near capacity, with some recording record throughputs.

ISO-NE Fuel Mix for Jan. 7, 2014

The graphic above shows the mix of generation by fuel type in New England during the evening peak load hour of January 7, 2014 arranged by percent of total generation.

Natural gas has become the primary fuel for generating electricity in New England over the past few years. Despite the rise in consumption, regional pipeline capacity has remained essentially flat and is projected to remain that way until 2017.

Forbes



23 Comments on "Is Natural Gas-Fired Electricity An Intermittent Resource?"

  1. ghung on Tue, 11th Mar 2014 1:47 pm 

    Sixty one percent fossil fuels, 50% oil and gas. Those who think there’s going to be a top-down transition to renewables may want to pay attention. Those who hope we can cut our carbon emissions significantly in any time-frame that matters take a hard look.

    As for intermittentcy, storing heat to even out demand is a cheap and effective way; thermal mass, hot water, phase change materials. Some heating units already have this feature, can be loaded with thermal energy during off-peak demand or when renewables are in surplus. I don’t see these things happening on any scale.

  2. rockman on Tue, 11th Mar 2014 3:07 pm 

    If I follow the logic of this piece they seem to be confusing intermittent supply with insufficient supply. They use the example of power plants that weren’t able to get all the NG they needed…not that their NG source stopped delivering. Well da! Virtually none of our delivery systems, be it NG, propane, water or bread, are designed to deliver at peak demand periods.

    They seem to be trying to turn a non-issue into a discussion topic IMHO.

  3. Nony on Tue, 11th Mar 2014 4:19 pm 

    It is a hard good to store/stockpile. Not like having a pile of coal. But more baseload gas would actually probably remove some seasonality. And Rock is right on about replacement of any factor of production.

  4. GregT on Tue, 11th Mar 2014 5:51 pm 

    “It is a hard good to store/stockpile. Not like having a pile of coal.”

    Even a pile of coal, does little good, if it is far enough away when it is needed. Coal also relies on JIT delivery.

  5. PapaSmurf on Tue, 11th Mar 2014 10:48 pm 

    That pie chart just scream out to me, “More Nukes !!!”

  6. Arthur on Tue, 11th Mar 2014 11:22 pm 

    From the article: The use of renewable energy resources for generating electric power is limited by the fact that renewable resources are not always available.

    The author ignores the adequate remedy of hydro-storage, that has the potential to filter out intermittent supply of wind.

    ghung says: Sixty one percent fossil fuels, 50% oil and gas. Those who think there’s going to be a top-down transition to renewables may want to pay attention.

    Or maybe we should not consider New England as the measure of all things?

    http://deepresource.wordpress.com/2012/09/28/denmark-2011-40-7-of-electricity-produced-renewable/

    Denmark, with zero resources, manages to generate 40% of it’s electricity from wind (2011). And Denmark is a very prosperous country.

    Last November wind energy provided for more than 100% of Danish electricity:

    energytransition . de/2013/11/denmark-surpasses-100-percent-wind-power/

    And in last October, Germany reached a peak of 59% renewable electricity:

    renewableenergyworld . com/rea/blog/post/2013/12/postcard-from-the-future-122-wind-power-in-denmark

    From the same link: And Denmark has plans to get to 50 percent more wind by 2020, creating even bigger hourly peaks. Energinet predicts the country may hit as many as 1,000 hours per year of power surplus.

    From examples like Denmark and Germany you can see that at the end of the oil age (that is: now) it is actually a blessing not to have any oil reserves, because such a country is forced into transition, giving that country a head start and competitive edge in the emerging renewable energy economy of the future.

  7. Davy, Hermann, MO on Wed, 12th Mar 2014 12:45 am 

    I know that this is just a case of pipeline capacity to a gas power generation plant in a cold winter being inadequate. I have made the point that we need to be very careful putting too much trust in gas and renewables for power at the expense of nuk and coal. I am not saying we should not work to reduce coal and nuk for safety and climate reasons but I do think eliminating coal and nuk because we are going to have a bounty of NatGas is a fool’s game. I also want to mention society today cannot afford to eliminate useful infrastructure like nuk and coal plants that have years of useful life left. We are at the point of limits of growth with a financial system that is in a bubble. These are not good conditions for a bunch of new investments in other power sources. We have to watch out for market distortions from the “lobby of plenty” pushing natural gas in so many applications when it could create real difficulties in times of high gas demand and or low production.

  8. Davy, Hermann, MO on Wed, 12th Mar 2014 12:55 am 

    Arthur said – From examples like Denmark and Germany you can see that at the end of the oil age (that is: now) it is actually a blessing not to have any oil reserves, because such a country is forced into transition, giving that country a head start and competitive edge in the emerging renewable energy economy of the future.
    -Last November wind energy provided for more than 100% of Danish electricity:
    -Denmark has plans to get to 50 percent more wind by 2020, creating even bigger hourly peaks.

    Arthur, so one month Danish electricity hit 100% what about the other months? Denmark is a special case. I want to see how far Europe goes with this renewable thing continent wide. Europe is broke and they can’t afford the huge grid upgrades it will take to replicate the tiny country of Denmark’s wind results. I doubt you will see 50% more wind power with the current economic situation but I may be wrong. Arthur you are a bit cocky with the boasting about it is actually a blessing not to have fossil fuels. Wind is not going to run your vehicles Arthur. You are deceiving yourself about the emerging renewable energy economy of the future. Sounds like more of the same “lobby of plenty and “human exceptionalism” saying the future is bright and everyone will live happily ever after in Europe.

  9. Arthur on Wed, 12th Mar 2014 8:41 am 

    Arthur, so one month Danish electricity hit 100% what about the other months? Denmark is a special case. I want to see how far Europe goes with this renewable thing continent wide.

    Hermann, why is Denmark a special case?

    Europe is broke

    Germany is booming (growth 3%) and pulling the rest of Europe with it. Most countries have positive growth.

    http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/soziales/oecd-zu-wirtschaftswachstum-in-g7-deutschland-zieht-europa-davon-a-958016.html

    Europe is broke and they can’t afford the huge grid upgrades it will take to replicate the tiny country of Denmark’s wind results.

    Germany is not exactly a small country and has comparable results with renewable energy. All EU countries are committed to 100% renewable energy by 2050, stinking rich and with balanced budgets and trade balances. Don’t worry about Europe.

    Wind is not going to run your vehicles Arthur.

    Who says we are going to drive cars in the future, like we did in the past? We won’t. Humanity existed without cars for hundred thousands of years and there was a European high culture before 1920-1950, when the car avelange began.

    You are deceiving yourself about the emerging renewable energy economy of the future. Sounds like more of the same “lobby of plenty and “human exceptionalism” saying the future is bright and everyone will live happily ever after in Europe.

    Never suggested that BAU is the future. Since we all seem to agree that fossil fuel is running out, by definition we are going to have a renewable energy future, where it is an open question what the energy replacement level is going to be. On a global scale, I am pessimistic for the short and mid term, but I do indeed believe that in the very long term (2100 and beyond), there is no energy problem. Our solar system can potentially provide all the energy we will ever need for the coming 2 billion years the sun has left.

  10. rockman on Wed, 12th Mar 2014 11:28 am 

    “…Germany…you can see that at the end of the oil age (that is: now) it is actually a blessing not to have any oil reserves, because such a country is forced into transition…”. Yes…a transition that includes coal. Consider:

    Between 2011 and 2015 Germany will open 10.7 GW of new coal fired power stations. This is more new coal capacity than was constructed in the entire two decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The expected annual electricity production of these power stations will far exceed that of existing solar panels and will be approximately the same as that of Germany’s existing solar panels and wind turbines combined. Solar panels and wind turbines however have expected life spans of no more than 25 years. Coal power plants typically last 50 years or longer. At best you could call the recent developments in Germany’s electricity sector contradictory.

  11. Davy, Hermann, MO on Wed, 12th Mar 2014 1:47 pm 

    Arthur said – Never suggested that BAU is the future. Since we all seem to agree that fossil fuel is running out, by definition we are going to have a renewable energy future, where it is an open question what the energy replacement level is going to be. On a global scale, I am pessimistic for the short and mid term, but I do indeed believe that in the very long term (2100 and beyond), there is no energy problem. Our solar system can potentially provide all the energy we will ever need for the coming 2 billion years the sun has left.

    No Arthur, your future is not BAU it is a fantasy BAU on steroids with the European renewable blue print. This has no future for the European AltE model post contraction Arthur when BAU stumbles. It takes lots of money to do this and Europe is broke. It will be much worse when the financial correction gains strength. The 3% growth you mention above is a shadow-stat joke. Europe is in a deep deflationary decent. It is cannibalizing itself by confiscation, taxation, and monetizing debt.

  12. Arthur on Wed, 12th Mar 2014 3:29 pm 

    Between 2011 and 2015 Germany will open 10.7 GW of new coal fired power stations. This is more new coal capacity than was constructed in the entire two decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The expected annual electricity production of these power stations will far exceed that of existing solar panels and will be approximately the same as that of Germany’s existing solar panels and wind turbines combined.

    New coal does not ‘far exceed’ installed solar/wind.

    http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/Germany-Sets-Another-Record-5.1-Terawatt-hours-of-Solar-in-July

    Installed wind: 24.2 GW
    Installed solar: 19.4 GW

    Generated during first 7 months: 24 TWh = 24,000 GWh

    7 months = 5040 hours ==> average production from wind: 5 GW

    Since the average coal power station isn’t working 100% of the time either, you can’t say that the new coal power stations will ‘far exceed’ the capacity of the installed renewable energy base.

  13. Northwest Resident on Wed, 12th Mar 2014 3:45 pm 

    And here is what happens when you combine NG energy with failing infrastructure:

    http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/12/us/manhattan-building-explosion/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

    That chances are excellent, given our inevitable financial decline, that any existing and/or new NG-powered anything will eventually end up in a state of disrepair or inadequate maintenance — a situation that all too often results in a big BOOM.

  14. Arthur on Wed, 12th Mar 2014 3:46 pm 

    It takes lots of money to do this and Europe is broke.

    Some people are more broke than others. Talking about shadow stats, here is the real state of affairs:

    http://www.welt.de/img/wirtschaft/origs111865855/4259728-w900-h600/DWO-EU-27Nachhaltigkeitsran.jpg

    It shows the ‘hard debt’ (dark blue) and ‘soft debt’ (light blue), the latter basically being promises made in the past that cannot be kept, like pensions, Obama-care, infrastructure, empire, military, the lot.

    And if you look at those figures, you will immediately recognize who has to apply the red pencil most rigorously by far: you.

    Again, there will be no BAU, not in the US, nor in the EU. It will be contraction wherever you look. But the EU does not need to dismantle an empire, since it hasn’t any. And the EU economy is ‘real’, meaning that it is not subsidized by a reserve currency.

  15. Davy, Hermann, MO on Wed, 12th Mar 2014 4:58 pm 

    Arthur said – Again, there will be no BAU, not in the US, nor in the EU. It will be contraction wherever you look. But the EU does not need to dismantle an empire, since it hasn’t any. And the EU economy is ‘real’, meaning that it is not subsidized by a reserve currency.

    Dismantling an Empire is easy. We can withdraw our money and bases from protecting Europe, South Korea, and Japan . They can be big boys and can learn to protect themselves and pay for it. We as Americans are tired of subsidizing their cushy lives. It will save $’s and everyone. These countries want their cake and eat it too by hating American presence but too cheap to step up and protect themselves. Europe has a bad habit of destroying itself. The Americans are the reason Europe has remained stable since WW2. Arthur it is not the US fault the rest of the world can’t field a reserve currency. It would have been far better for the US if we never had a reserve currency because of the many distortion to the US economy it has caused

  16. Arthur on Thu, 13th Mar 2014 1:13 pm 

    We can withdraw our money and bases from protecting Europe, South Korea, and Japan. They can be big boys and can learn to protect themselves and pay for it. We as Americans are tired of subsidizing their cushy lives.

    It may be true that ordinary Americans like you are tired of paying for empire, but those in charge in Washington love playing empire and try to expand it on a routine basis. There is no European request for the US to have 13 carriers and a King Size XXL MIC.

    And against who needs Europe protection from, after 1989?

    Europe has a bad habit of destroying itself. The Americans are the reason Europe has remained stable since WW2.

    That’s correct, both WW1 and WW2 were initiated by Britain and France, because they were unwilling to accept the existence of Germany and they failed to notice that their attempt to ram Germany back into the Versailles mode was futile in the light of the emergence of two new very potent kids on the block: the US and USSR, both with globalist designs. But you fail to see the less than benevolent role the US played in WW2, where it exploited the inner-European quarrel about the acceptable size of Germany for it’s own ends and did everything it could to bring a war in Europe about… in order to conquer it, together with the USSR. And this was not an accidental outcome of WW2, but a pre-planned action by the three greatest conspirators the world has ever seen: Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin. The destruction of Germany and hence Europe, an entity that had dominated the planet since the days of Columbus, was decided upon before the Germans crossed the Polish border in order to come to the aid of their beleaguered countrymen, forced to live in Poland due to Versailles. When Churchill was not yet PM, he was illegally, behind Chamberlain’s back, on the phone with Roosevelt on a daily basis, all witnessed by the last serious WASP-opposition against the gradual Zionist take-over of the US: Joseph Kennedy, US-ambassador in London. And at the same time, Churchill had mysterious clandestine meetings with the Jewish Soviet ambassador in London, Ivan Maisky, to prepare for the destruction of Europe in concert with Stalin.

    Arthur it is not the US fault the rest of the world can’t field a reserve currency

    That’s a naive way of putting it. The supreme position of the dollar was after the war dictated to the vanquished world by America in Bretton Woods, by the Jewish Soviet spy, Harry Dexter White. It was this move that for a large part was responsible for the extraordinary levels of wealth in the US after the war and that is now drawing to a close, forcing Americans to live more like us Europeans now. The ‘peak-oil’ situation will ensure that additional cut-backs in wealth will be in the pipeline for all of us.

    It would have been far better for the US if we never had a reserve currency because of the many distortion to the US economy it has caused

    You could see it more positively, and acknowledge that an extraordinary chapter in US history was enabled by this financial circumstance, culminating in the moon-landing. That won’t be easy to top, if that is ever going to happen. I mean, sure pyramids, Colosseum and auto-bahnen is all good and well, but putting a man on the moon, that’s a different story.

  17. Davy, Hermann, MO on Thu, 13th Mar 2014 2:21 pm 

    Fair enough Arthur always enjoyable to verbally spar with you. I actually like to see all sides of the equation so I hope you don’t take my jousting in anyway personally. We are somewhat alike in enjoying the mental adrenalin rush of mental competition.

  18. https://sieuthinhadathanoi.info on Tue, 14th Nov 2017 8:34 pm 

    As a result silver investments are exceptionally volatile when compared
    to gold investments. Thousands of small investors have become looking
    online for investing guidance and opportunities. Mutual fund ratings
    work on the existing and the past only, without any regards to the longer term performance
    associated with a particular fund.

  19. https://kenhchungcumoi.info on Tue, 21st Nov 2017 12:28 pm 

    This is stylized inside same fashion as the old-fashioned the top house weather vane.
    At the moment there’ s a tremendous shift towards becoming far more environmentally conscious and most people are aiming to do their part with regards to living far more sustainable and making less influence around the
    planet. Average mortgage repayments amount to about 30 percent or
    higher of homeowners’ gross income, sometimes reaching of up to 1 / 2 of the net
    income.

  20. Kênh đại lý dự án bất động sản chung cư on Sat, 16th Dec 2017 5:02 pm 

    Due to this reason, some homeowners have suffered many losses while
    they were not able to to trade their properties simply because they happen to be declined
    with the buyers. You need an immigration lawyer if you want to immigrate abroad or if you are facing immigration issues.
    When you apply the ideas listed within the six preceding
    paragraphs, you are able to greatly raise your odds of
    putting your cash in a property that may present you with that cash back and after that some.

  21. Kênh thông tin chung cư Thủ Đô on Mon, 18th Dec 2017 2:10 pm 

    Also searching through foreclosures, auctions, and homes which might
    be preparing to enter foreclosure being a great method to obtain bargains.
    The police can provide you with all of the
    information regarding crime rates. Ponder what you’re in a
    position to perform differently to put yourself much more inside the black.

  22. www.sieuthicanho24h.info on Sun, 24th Dec 2017 12:11 pm 

    However, today Kerala is proving to be an advert and
    commercial hub in the country that is giving other states a run for his or her money.
    After viewing one villa rate it from 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest.
    Your dilemma must end here and hurry to book you use premium
    villas in Cochin, to reap each of the benefits
    who’s sports offer.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *