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Old 03-13-12, 05:18 PM   #20
AlanE
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Piwoslaw View Post
I can understand that at the moment power exchange politics may not be fair for all involved, but let's look at it globally: Surplus wind power isn't wasted, it's only stored somewhere else, increasing its price, and gets used later. So it does reduce fossil fuel use, though not necessarily where intended. It's still a win, though the politics behind it could be improved... And, of course, wind by itself isn't the answer to all power problems, it's only a part of the solution.
This comes across like this: "I love the idea so much that I'll twist the logic any way I have to to make it sound appealing."

-Hey Danish power consumer, you need more wind power.
-But we don't reduce the burning of fossil fuels and it costs us more for power, in fact we're already paying the highest rates in Europe. Paying more for power means that everything that uses power as an economic activity becomes more expensive and thus lowers our standard of living.
-But even if you don't replace fossil fuels, some else does by your using wind power.
-No, it's not like that at all. The buyer of our cheap power, which we sell at a loss, has to store that power because if we're producing a surplus at a given time of day, it's likely that they're also experiencing a surplus, and the only buyers who can do this are those with hydroelectric plants which can be switched on and off on one second's notice and those who have pumping facilities to push water up hill. If these buyers have these facilities then they're not burning oil and coal, so no, us using wind power doesn't reduce Norway's reliance on oil/coal. For the effect you describe to happen the buyer of our wind power would have to be using coal/oil but if that were the case what would they be doing for storage of that surplus power at that time of day? They don't have lakes and hydro to use as batteries, that's why they're using coal/oil.
-Well, you don't understand my baby, he's a good kid, he's just misunderstood. He couldn't have done the bad thing you say he did - - - oops, I mean wind power is just misunderstood.
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