Denmark produced 140% of electricity demand with wind power

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freitasm

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# 176945 16-Jul-2015 20:41

Denmark produced 140% of electricity demand with wind power. Meanwhile, Wikipedia references say New Zealand generates only 5% of demand through wind power - which is something we don't lack around some places.

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# 1345769 16-Jul-2015 20:42

The issue in NZ is the RMA and people don't like the look of them or they will make a slight noise as the wind passes over the blades

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# 1345773 16-Jul-2015 20:44

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It takes two decades to get a Wind Power Station approved. We will never have the plants to produce 10%

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# 1345774 16-Jul-2015 20:46

We have an over supply of electricity with a very high proportion from renewables.

New Zealand is actually quite a challenging place for wind farms, we have very high wind velocities which mean we need high performance wind turbines.

There isn't any new generation planned for a while now.

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# 1345784 16-Jul-2015 20:56

Denmark is smart. They export wind power to other countries for a premium and buy in cheap nuclear power to form a base load for the grid!

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# 1345801 16-Jul-2015 21:22

If you fly into Copenhagen there are about a thousand turbines in the water, so they don't even take up any space on land.

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# 1345802 16-Jul-2015 21:24

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cleggy2: If you fly into Copenhagen there are about a thousand turbines in the water, so they don't even take up any space on land.

There are turbines in the water whether you fly in or not... you can just see them better from a plane.

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# 1345805 16-Jul-2015 21:32

New Zealand is a weird country. At every level the governance is extremely short sighted and targeted at self preservation.

At national level everything is updated to a five year capacity. Problem is it takes 5 years to approve 5 years to plan and 5 years to build and then you are already ten years behind. Same with councils, and local hospital board etc.

Even then if one person makes enough noise to sound the 6pm news it will put everything on hold. Eg the Christchurch cathedral. Even the cathedral goers and owners want to rebuild it. But some wizard (i am just guessing would normally have nothing to do with the cathedral) makes some noise and so now it's still a majestic piece of ruin 5 years on.

Not sure why.

Involuntary autocorrect in operation on mobile device. Apologies in advance.

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# 1345813 16-Jul-2015 21:49

Great headline, but it was only for a small period between 10pm on a Thursday nite and 3 am Friday morning,

During periods like that all of NZ is more than Capable of being totally renewable also,

Its a bit like the headlines doing the round that Germany produced 50% of its electricity from solar in 2014, when in fact it was for a 3 hour period on a church holiday Monday public holiday 2 weeks from the longest day...

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# 1345825 16-Jul-2015 22:26

joker97: New Zealand is a weird country. At every level the governance is extremely short sighted and targeted at self preservation.

At national level everything is updated to a five year capacity. Problem is it takes 5 years to approve 5 years to plan and 5 years to build and then you are already ten years behind. Same with councils, and local hospital board etc.

Even then if one person makes enough noise to sound the 6pm news it will put everything on hold. Eg the Christchurch cathedral. Even the cathedral goers and owners want to rebuild it. But some wizard (i am just guessing would normally have nothing to do with the cathedral) makes some noise and so now it's still a majestic piece of ruin 5 years on.

Not sure why.

I will concur that it takes a very long time to get anything done.

Part of it is a curious belief that "people" must be "consulted" instead of being told what will happen. Ergo, everything gets bogged down because you can't run a nation by committee and expect to achieve a lot.

Given that, by definition, 50% of "people" are below average intelligence, consulting them serves very little purpose that I can divine other than creating the mirage that their opinions are 'taken into account'.

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# 1345826 16-Jul-2015 22:30

timmmay:
cleggy2: If you fly into Copenhagen there are about a thousand turbines in the water, so they don't even take up any space on land.

There are turbines in the water whether you fly in or not... you can just see them better from a plane.

So true!

Do we have any water ones here or is it just our hilltops?

They could build thousands in places like fiordland and no one would ever see them apart from the moose.

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# 1345829 16-Jul-2015 22:39

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Geektastic:
timmmay:
cleggy2: If you fly into Copenhagen there are about a thousand turbines in the water, so they don't even take up any space on land.

There are turbines in the water whether you fly in or not... you can just see them better from a plane.

So true!

Do we have any water ones here or is it just our hilltops?

They could build thousands in places like fiordland and no one would ever see them apart from the moose.

Yep and then we would have to invest hundreds of millions in upgrading the distribution system to get the power to where it could be used. If Tiwai Point gets mothballed we'll have the same problem with the Manapouri Dam. A ton of excess generation with no way of getting the power to the North Island where it is needed.

It all sounds very good in theory but it's highly impractical. We need more generation closer to the main centres, not in the South Island.

As I said earlier we have an excess of generation in New Zealand at the moment, and will do for over 5 years, possibly longer due to our dropping industrial base, and energy efficiency measures having very attractive ROIs form large consumers.

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# 1345840 16-Jul-2015 22:56

Handle9:
Geektastic:
timmmay:
cleggy2: If you fly into Copenhagen there are about a thousand turbines in the water, so they don't even take up any space on land.

There are turbines in the water whether you fly in or not... you can just see them better from a plane.

So true!

Do we have any water ones here or is it just our hilltops?

They could build thousands in places like fiordland and no one would ever see them apart from the moose.

Yep and then we would have to invest hundreds of millions in upgrading the distribution system to get the power to where it could be used. If Tiwai Point gets mothballed we'll have the same problem with the Manapouri Dam. A ton of excess generation with no way of getting the power to the North Island where it is needed.

It all sounds very good in theory but it's highly impractical. We need more generation closer to the main centres, not in the South Island.

As I said earlier we have an excess of generation in New Zealand at the moment, and will do for over 5 years, possibly longer due to our dropping industrial base, and energy efficiency measures having very attractive ROIs form large consumers.

Build them in the middle of the East Cape then. No one goes there.

I can just imagine the Nimbys if someone proposed 500 wind turbines just offshore of Auckland!

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# 1345867 17-Jul-2015 00:44

sbiddle: Denmark is smart. They export wind power to other countries for a premium and buy in cheap nuclear power to form a base load for the grid!

Good for them!

But, New Zealand isn't Denmark.

It is stupidity to blindly follow them.

We have our own advantages.

The South Island has decent rainfall and a high mountain range backbone. water+gravity ==> cheap hydro
The North Island has bubbling mud ==> geothermal.

Sure wind power has a place. But, it isn't as reliable/consistent or cheap as our main advantages.

JWR

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# 1345869 17-Jul-2015 01:06

Geektastic:
joker97: New Zealand is a weird country. At every level the governance is extremely short sighted and targeted at self preservation.

At national level everything is updated to a five year capacity. Problem is it takes 5 years to approve 5 years to plan and 5 years to build and then you are already ten years behind. Same with councils, and local hospital board etc.

Even then if one person makes enough noise to sound the 6pm news it will put everything on hold. Eg the Christchurch cathedral. Even the cathedral goers and owners want to rebuild it. But some wizard (i am just guessing would normally have nothing to do with the cathedral) makes some noise and so now it's still a majestic piece of ruin 5 years on.

Not sure why.

I will concur that it takes a very long time to get anything done.

Part of it is a curious belief that "people" must be "consulted" instead of being told what will happen. Ergo, everything gets bogged down because you can't run a nation by committee and expect to achieve a lot.

Given that, by definition, 50% of "people" are below average intelligence, consulting them serves very little purpose that I can divine other than creating the mirage that their opinions are 'taken into account'.

Christchurch rebuild---

The least of our problems in Christchurch, is the Cathedral. For better, or worse, the outcome will probably be decided by the Courts.

On the other hand, we have a great blob (two if you count the proposed - but delayed convention centre) of inner city land controlled by the Government. It is a cleared bombsite. Nothing happening - projects delayed.

The Government has total control over this area. No committees.

Of course on the other side of town, the rebuild is fully underway.

Intelligence, what is it- define it?---

I don't know. No body knows. There are many ideas.

You might say - 'no one below average intelligence should ever be listened to'.

Prove you aren't below 'average intelligence'!

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# 1345880 17-Jul-2015 06:16

JWR:
sbiddle: Denmark is smart. They export wind power to other countries for a premium and buy in cheap nuclear power to form a base load for the grid!

Good for them!

But, New Zealand isn't Denmark.

It is stupidity to blindly follow them.

We have our own advantages.

The South Island has decent rainfall and a high mountain range backbone. water+gravity ==> cheap hydro
The North Island has bubbling mud ==> geothermal.

Sure wind power has a place. But, it isn't as reliable/consistent or cheap as our main advantages.

And that's the problem with wind. It's unsuitable as a base load because of that.

I was just reading some stats and wind now makes up around 30% of Denmark's electricity. Nuclear is still 10%.

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