This study by the Irish grid manager finds that the benefits of wind-generated power are small and that they decrease as more wind power is added to the system and as the system grows itself. Their model assumes that all energy produced from wind facilities would be used and did not consider output fluctuations within a time period of less than an hour.

They decribe three problems that mitigate the benefits of wind power:

-large amount of extra energy required to start up thermal generators that would otherwise not have been turned off

-mechanical stresses of more frequent ramping of production levels up and down

-increased prices of energy necessary to pay for any lower usage of thermal plants.

They notice that there is very little possibility of closig any non-wind facilities, because their capacity would still be needed to respond to periods of peak demand. Wind plants add more capacity (requiring more infrastructure) with almost no reduction on non-wind capacity, the latter of which must be used more inefficiently than otherwise.

As for carbon dioxide reduction-one of the primary arguments for wind-generated power- the study concludes that the cost of carbon dioxide abatement arising from using large levels of wind energy appears high relative to other alternatives.

Web link: http://www.eirgrid.com/EirGridPortal/uploads/Publi...