A new technique may completely change the use of wind power from a back-up to the star of the show. As we all know what we get at our home is Alternating Current or AC. This type of electricity is then converted into DC or direct current to run our computers or is used in its own way in some other devices such as your toaster or water heater.
Transmission lines usually carry Alternating Current at a much higher voltage than what we get at home. The reason for this is that AC suffers more losses as it travels from the grid to your home. Why not use DC instead of AC then. The reason for this is simple DC suffers more loss than AC in short distances.
The better way is still to use DC while transmitting power from the grid to the base station and then convert it back to AC while transmitting it to our houses. This technique not only makes better use of the electricity developed by dams but also would allow electricity grids to be restructured in ways that would make wind power more attractive. This would also reduce the need for new conventional power stations.
Wind power comes with its own set of disadvantages. The main include the fact that it cannot be always delivered to where you are and when you want it. Wind is not continuously blowing at a place but is blowing at some place. Here is where we get to the idea of continental grids.
Once these grids are built there will be no question as to where the wind is blowing because it will be blowing at one or the other place. Imagine a continental grid between Spain and Ireland. If it were windy in Spain but not in Ireland, current would flow in one direction and the other when the wind pattern reverses.
An important component to this continental grid would be the branch to Norway. Its not that Norway is the biggest customer in the world, but it has a large number of hydroelectric plants. Wind energy could be stored in grid-filling quantities and used to pump water up into the reservoirs that power the turbines. If there is a drop in the power generated by wind, then these grids could pump electricity from these hydroelectric plants.
Researchers hope that this continental grid could supply at least 30% of the power needed in Europe and also envision these continental grids to eventually replace all base load power plants.
Other proponents of this technique believe that the potential of the sun can also be used instead of wind in the same manner. These large-scale green power techniques should come up soon, but their good looking prospects might pose some other problems that we will see once they are in operation.
Via: Tree Hugger
