The biggest wind farms in the world versus South Africa's

[Daniel Puchert]

South Africa's biggest wind farms vs the world

South Africa's five largest wind farms have a combined capacity of 550 MW, just over a third of the size of the world's largest wind plant.

The country is slowly advancing its renewables sector, with a total solar capacity of over 4,400MW and wind at roughly 3,300MW. There are 34 wind farms located nationwide.

 

[DeSLAM]

Koeberg, = 1 nuclear power station , capacity 1940 MW, always on ,instead of 550 MW of potential wind energy.

 

[The_Right_Honourable_Brit]

A warning from the UK, where they have lots of wind power...

The boss of British Gas owner Centrica has warned Britain “runs a real risk” by focusing too much on wind power instead of targeting a mix of sources.

Chris O’Shea pointed to figures showing the UK’s windfarms used only 15pc of their power generating capacity on average last week.

Britain has around 30GW of installed wind generation capacity, but it typically generated only 4.41GW of electricity during the period.

Mr O’Shea wrote on LinkedIn: “Whilst wind power is great, we run a real risk if we focus too much on new wind as we look to decarbonise the energy system of the future.

“A net zero future requires a range of technologies, and a good balance.”

 

[leon.davibe]

Koeberg, = 1 nuclear power station , capacity 1940 MW, always on ,instead of 550 MW of potential wind energy.

yea the capacity factor would probably around 30% so on average it would make 165mw

so yea to have a like for like production you would need 6466mw of wind energy, and even then you may have enough when you don't need it or too little when you do

naturally with pumped storage you can time shift
the point is everybody says renewables are cheaper but nobody mentions that you have to do with wind 3.3X the capacity and solar 4X the capacity
to have a like for like production

you can't say solar costs $1718 per kw and compare that to $6700 of nuclear
you have to compare a plant with all the losses/ineficiencies compensated for ie the size of the plant needed to match a 24/7 production of nuclear
for a like for like you have to say wind 1718 x 3.33 = $5720 excluding any battery / pumped storage costs/losses
and solar $1327 x 4 = $5308 without battery
with battery the costs would be $6992 actually a touch more than nuclear

now yes each has their problems
i just hate the bullshit not doing a propper comparison