In the renewable energy dedicated chapters, the author writes about the unpredictability of renewable energy in the short-term, particularly wind electricity generation.
He refers to the disconnection of turbines in Spain in March and April 2008, because they were generating up to 40 per cent of the countries electricity requirement and small percentage changes in wind output could overwhelm the ability to import instantaneously electricity from France or switch on backup power stations.
The solution to this problem lies in three different approaches:
1. Importing Remote power - good electricity connections to their neighbours (currently Spain can only import a maximum of 5 % of demand). Major investments in power distribution networks are required, i. e., increasing the number and size of electricity transmission links between different countries and between regions inside countries.
2. Storing electricity to meet short-term needs - through pumped storage (movement of large quantities of water uphill into a storage reservoir), batteries and hydrogen production, which is a vector of electricity. It can be interesting coupling wind electricity generation and mini-dams.
3. Managing demand to meet supply - load shredding, which consists of disconnecting industries for a short period of time from the electricity grid. The industries that agree to this have lower electricity bills.
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