Weather

Why does wind power decline during heat waves?


As heatwaves hit the west side of the Cascades, power demand soars as people speed up their air conditioners or heat pumps. And as the region warms this century and more people secure cooling systems, demand will only increase.


As the region and the Western United States increasingly move toward renewable energy such as wind power, one important fact should be kept in mind: The current distribution of wind turbines in the Pacific Northwest experiences a profound DISCIPLINE in terms of output during heatwaves.

Which is not good.

But why is our energy going down as temperatures in western Washington and Oregon rise?


That will be the topic of this blog.

To see the situation, here is an image from the Bonneville Power Authority showing regional demand (red line), hydroelectricity generation (blue line), renewable electricity generation (green line) , nuclear (purple line) and fossil fuel/biomass production (brown line) in the past week.

A few things are obvious. Hydroelectricity is dominating the absolute. Nuclear and fossil fuels/biomasses are the same as nuclear and are virtually constant over time. Renewable energy (almost entirely wind power) is very variable and much less than hydroelectricity.


You will note that we generate more energy than we need at this time of year, with most of the energy going to California, where our energy is desperately needed.

But you’ll notice something else: the amount of wind generated was extremely low during the warm days of last week and then increased…above nuclear! … in the last day as western Washington cools down and demand for AC falls.

This pattern – less wind power and increased energy during cool down – is the one I’ve seen time and time again. Now let’s explain why.

Virtually all of the wind turbines in the region are located on the lower eastern slopes of the Cascades or near the Columbia River.

When winds are from the west, they can push eastward through the opening in the Cascades west of Ellensburg and through the Columbia Gorge. That’s why there are so many wind turbines around Ellensburg and in and downstream east of the Columbia Gorge.

Such westerly (westerly) winds are intensified by high pressure west of the Cascades and lower pressure over the Columbia Basin: air can accelerate from high pressure to low pressure.

This pressure pattern is typical for much of the summer, as cool air predominates west of Washington and warm conditions east of the Cascades. Cool air is denser/heavier than warm air so western Washington has higher pressure than eastern Washington.

But there’s more to it: an area of ​​great high pressure is also often in the eastern Pacific Ocean, while lower pressure is found in the southwestern desert.

To illustrate the pressure situation, below is the sea level pressure pattern at 5pm last Thursday before the heat wave. The solid lines are constant pressure isobars, and the colors represent temperatures around 2500 ft (warmer red/brown/blue). High pressure offshore and large pressure differential across the Cascades.

The wind turbines were actually spinning at this point! Good wind power.


But to get a heatwave west of the Cascades, the pressure pattern has to be different. You must stop the cool sea air from spreading across western Washington and Oregon!

High pressure weakened offshore but built inland. The pressure differential across the Cascades weakens or even reverses. And the wind around Ellensburg and near the Canyon died down.

Modeling pressure and temperature during the onset of a heatwave (at 5 p.m. Tuesday) provides an example (below). The pressure difference is much less across the Cascades. And other cases of heatwaves are even more acute in such changes.


To illustrate further, here is the UW WRF model wind forecast for between the heatwave and yesterday… both at 5pm (yellow and red indicate strongest winds). See how much stronger was the wind east of Washington last night? No wonder the power output increased dramatically!


So just when we need more power to drive our AC in western WA and Oregon, the wind is redfaltering anxiety. And as soon as the west cools down and the situation returns to normal, the winds will kick in again (as pictured above).

And there is another problem. During the coldest part of winter, wind tends to die off east of Washington, and the wind power generated is very poor.

So if you want to use renewable energy for when we need it most, what can you do?

You need to diversify.

Regionally, we will need a more diverse portfolio of wind turbines in different locations, particularly windy locations as the air turns sluggish east of Washington. The coastal waters of Washington and Oregon are prime examples of vantage points.

But more than that, a mind Nation need to have a renewable energy perspective, not the particular approach that dominates today. Starting with detailed knowledge of the country’s meteorology, one needs to create an optimal wind and solar power generation system that can cover most weather situations and seasons, with the ability to large capacity to transmit electricity across the continent to deliver energy where it is needed.

And for those times when renewable energy is not enough… and there will be significant periods when this is true – we need a power generation platform, with nuclear power being the leading choice. top, no carbon.

Making this happen is that an Apollo program of ten types of activities would not be made possible by some of the energy credits and disorganized approach that currently prevails.



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