One Alberta coal plant put out 135x what the whole wind fleet did. Not 1.35x, or 13.5x, but 135x.
Saskatchewan is going down this path. We are going to give up what we know works, for what we know absolutely does not work, on an irregular but frequent basis. SaskPower is intent on adding an additional 3,000 megawatts of wind and solar power production in this province by 2035. This will generally be done through independent power producers, with a power purchase agreement.
This low wind situation lasted from 3 a.m. until at least 2 p.m. on Thursday. And its low again right now, around 165 megawatts of 3618.
What will happen to our grid when 40% or more of it is wind and solar, everyone’s driving electric vehicles, and we have days like this? Do we not charge the ambulances? Or the grain trucks for farmers? Shut down Evraz and maybe a half dozen potash mines? Rolling blackouts?
SaskPower wants 3,647 megawatts of wind and solar. But early this morning, Alberta’s 4,783 MW of the same produced just 29 MW . And it stayed around that number from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m.
But we’re going to shut down our coal and build a 650 megawatt power line to the US.(Previously posted) Carbon-tax free, of course.
The fraction of Alberta’s wind power generation capacity put out on Saturday, March 11.
On Feb. 23, when wind power generation produced an average of 10 megawatts throughout the day, you would have needed two wind turbines covering every single square mile south of Gravelbourg, from the Alberta to Manitoba borders, to provide the same amount of power as natural gas and coal did that day. Or, you could have around 10 reactors.
Alberta wind generation fell to 0.3 per cent capacity at supper last night. And the batteries that are supposed to back them up? Yeah, in the last 30 days, they output power a cumulative 0.09 per cent. That’s not 9 out of 100. That’s 9 out of 10,000. But the public thinks they will be used every night when the sun goes down or the wind doesn’t blow.
Wonder how SaskPower’s doing? We won’t be told for another two days.
The fog and calm winds have not gone away. Four days in a row, wind power in Saskatchewan was either negligible or negative. Two of those days were negative.
And remember that SaskPower is beefing up its interconnect to North Dakota and the Southwest Power Pool, from 150 to 650 megawatts? Well, as of 12:15 a.m., SPP’s power was 45% coal. So we will give up coal power here, and have option to buy coal power from the US. Because that’s what they rely on when the wind decides not to blow there, either.
Turns out there’s a new development out of the story that took place on Monday.
Justin Trudeau on Monday didn’t think much of Saskatchewan’s clean energy projects.
On that very day, characterized by fog throughout much of southern Saskatchewan (where the wind turbines are located), SaskPower’s total wind power generation fell to “-1 megawatt,” as in negative one megawatt, according to the Crown corporation’s Where Does Your Power Come From web page. This is the lowest number Pipeline Online has seen since the page went online in September, 2022. It’s also an average throughout the entire day, not just at a particular moment.
According to SaskPower, “The turbines were iced up and unable to produce. The -1 megawatt was load to service the facilities.”
Saskatchewan has 617 megawatts of installed grid-scale wind power generation.
Also, SaskPower is now paying people extra just to stay in Coronach instead of walking away early from the doomed coal plant.
On Sunday, 42% of our power came from natural gas, and 41% came from coal. Another 12% came from hydro.
1% came from wind
Ottawa, we have a problem.
It turns out that the same day Alberta’s wind power flatlined, so did Saskatchewan’s. SaskPower delays its data reporting two days, which is why it took until Friday to find this out. Note that the 1.3 per cent output was the average for the entire day, meaning that it was even lower for part of the day.
Alberta’s electrical grid, with 3,618 megawatts of installed wind generation, was getting just 19 megawatts from wind at 7:26 a.m. on Wednesday. This is after several grid alerts in late November and throughout December.
For the second time in 2 days, 4th time in December, Alberta Electric System Operator declares a “grid alert” as the power system can’t keep up with demand. It’s too cold for the wind turbines. -31C at Lethbridge, -35 C at Pincher Creek
SaskPower delays its reporting of power output by two days. But it turns out that on Tuesday, Dec. 13, wind power production in Saskatchewan all but collapsed. Again. You’d think in winter, having reliable power might be a thing? But we are intent on building more, a lot more, wind and solar.
Pipeline Online column on Alberta’s two electrical grid alerts this past week. And it’s not even really cold there yet.
As evidenced twice this past week, the electrical grid can barely handle the demand we have, now, before we switch most of our transportation system to electric vehicles. What happens when half our cars and trucks are EVs? Then three-quarters? What happens when the wind doesn’t blow then? No one goes to work?
When will the other media take notice? When will they start to question this mad rush to wind and solar, and total adoption of electric vehicles? When will someone else in the Saskatchewan media declare “The emperor has no clothes?”
Alberta issues second grid alert in three days, as wind power generation collapses utterly, yet again, at suppertime.
On Tuesday going into Wednesday, Wind power production in Alberta dropped to 0.1 per cent of nameplate capacity. And it stayed at 2% or less for about 24 hours. Well, now we know Saskatchewan saw a substantial drop as well.