The world’s biggest offshore wind farm, Hornsea 2, generates first power

Re:The world’s biggest offshore wind farm, Hornsea 2, genera... by gwright on Wednesday December 29, 2021 @11:10AM (#29726093)

That article summary says:

> Yet even in systems which meet >90% of demand, hundreds of hours of unmet demand may occur annually.

and

> satisfy countries’ electricity demand in 72–91% of hours (83–94% by adding 12 h of storage).

So not 3 hours and still significant number of days without power.

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Re:The world’s biggest offshore wind farm, Hornsea 2, genera... by pfdietz on Wednesday December 29, 2021 @01:28PM (#29727960)

You back that up with combustion turbines burning some renewably-sourced fuel.

Capital cost of a simple cycle combustion turbine power plant: $500/kW Capital cost of a nuclear power plant: $10,000/kW

So, one can have this backup sitting there ready to go for just 5% of the cost of an all nuclear grid. You do need the fuel, but if it's only used a few hundred hours per year the fuel cost will be minor.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:The world’s biggest offshore wind farm, Hornsea 2, genera... by bryanlarsen on Wednesday December 29, 2021 @02:21PM (#29728829)

That's without overbuild. Look at the graphs at the back, the ones with 3x overbuild and 3 hours of storage. Small countries still have unmet demand, but Russia, US and Canada do not.

[ Parent | on HN ]