Wind enthusiast may ‘chunter on’ about interconnectability but in the real world, engineering constraints mean that wind power is an adjunct to a reliable supply. Mr Hugh Sharman got it about right when he said wind power in the UK should not exceed 10,000MW. (Institution of Civil’s Proceedings Nov2005). Above that figure wind could not easily be incorporated into the system.

The C O2 emission sums are quite simple. Wind operates at between 25% and 30% of its rated capacity. Above those figures ‘back-up’ is needed to make 100% i.e. 75% to 70%. If you are lucky you use hydro, but in most cases fossil fuel ‘back-up’ is needed. The type of plant that can ramp up and down quickly to match the vagaries of wind is gas. A combined cycle gas turbine running full time produces about 0.4t of CO2 per MW. However, when a gas plant is run as ‘back-up’ it runs inefficiently and produces about 0.6t of CO2 per MWh. This means that used 70% of the time the gas plant produces 0.6x 0.7 =0.42t of CO2. i.e. the essential ‘back-up’ for wind means that wind power does little or nothing to cut CO2 emissions!

The analogy of fuel used a car running at constant speed on the motorway compared to a car running stop/start in town hold good. My car will travel 100 miles on a motorway at 43mpg but in town gets only 29mpg. I.e. it uses 50% more fuel to the mile in town. Gas turbines are like that too. In a stop/start regime they use 50% more fuel to the MWh, since the heat part to the generating system does not come into operation until the plant is ‘ramped up’ to full heat (takes say, an hour)

It also mainly cites anecdotes and second hand sources instead of primary sources. (Example: ‘BBC weatherman Paul Hudson, who wrote in January 2011′, etc.)

This report, in my opinion, is just a FUD exercise.