You are incorrect in saying that I “imply” that “…all of the studies in favor of wind are invalid due to the nature of data collection (no [sic] long enough, or frequent enough, etc).” What I said in this post is that there is no convincing proof that utility-scale wind plants reduce fossil fuel consumption or CO2 emissions. Your comment about available data applies to all studies, both for and against wind power. The question is: Why do the wind proponents, some of whom likely have access to the necessary information, not base their analyses on such?

In the absence of such information, all analyses are thus incomplete, although as I have said elsewhere all studies make a contribution – the question is how much?. For a general description of the shortcomings of typical wind proponent analyses see my post at http://www.masterresource.org/2009/11/wind-integration-incremental-emissions-from-back-up-generation-cycling-part-i-a-framework-and-calculator/ .

Not having the “inside information”, so to speak, studies by wind opponents are left to glean what they can from available information, and as I said these studies are emerging. The Bentek and Netherlands studies are based on actual experience, data for which is slowly becoming available, and they are a refreshing departure from most other studies. The available information is still very much limited – you will note in the subsequent post, Part III, I did say that there were “notable limitations” in the Bentek study. Further, the Bentek study authors call for more comprehensive analyses for confirmation, as do I and the authors of the Netherlands study.

On the other hand, for an analysis of typical wind proponent studies see http://www.masterresource.org/2009/12/wind-integration-incremental-emissions-from-back-up-generation-cycling-part-iii-response-to-comments/ , http://www.masterresource.org/2010/04/case-study-on-methods-of-industrial-scale-wind-power-analysis-part-i/#more-8609 and http://www.masterresource.org/2010/04/case-study-on-methods-of-industrial-scale-wind-powerii/

If you can find a wind proponent study that takes the sound and comprehensive approach that myself and others call for, and you can demonstrate that it does do this, I would appreciate knowing about it.

Also, the claim that wind power increases fossil fuel emissions and CO2 is misleading. Take a look at the extreme – the following link is regarding an island that is 40% powered by wind and the rest is bio fuels that come from the crops grown on the island. According to your information, the wind power on the island should be producing tons of fossil emissions and CO2, which clearly isn’t the case. You should really get some critical thinking skills. http://inspiredeconomist.com/2009/01/31/want-a-sustainable-community-try-an-island/

Sorry, no detailed comments yet. I’ll get to it.

I mentioned to you elsewhere that Australian data should be excellent for extending this work of calibrating the calculator. Australian generation data is recorded at 5 minute intervals and is publicly available. The Australian National Grid is the largest in the world by aerial extent (so I am told) . We have 18 main wind farms spanning some 12ookm in areal extent. Importantly, one region of the grid is connected by just two small interconnectors to the main part of the grid. This is the South Australia region and it contains about 50% of the installed wind capacity. So it would be an ideal small, isolated region for further studies. We also have the Western Australian grid which is totally isolated from the NEM grid. I am not sure how accessible the data is from this grid. I am not sure how to get the fuel use data from the generators. They would need to cooperate.

Below are some links to data and some sites that are downloading it and making it available in various ways.

http://www.landscapeguardians.org.au/data/aemo/

Here are charts from this data

http://windfarmperformance.info/?date=2010-05-17

Here is the AEMO site. http://www.aemo.com.au/data/csv.html#nsgendata

You can down load all generation data from all registered generators connected to the the National Electricity Market grid. This grid does not extend to Western Australia or Northern Territory.

The site is an absolute mess and I cannot provide any help on how to find your way around it. I’d need to do a PhD on the site to begin to understand its layout.

Here is another site downloading and charting the wind data (they have only just got started. They would appreciate any comments from you.

http://www.oz-energy-analysis.org/index.html

This explains the Australian National Grid:

http://www.aer.gov.au/content/item.phtml?itemId=732297&nodeId=797fa2c37535f919f67fa34dc4970e13&fn=Chapter%201%20%20Electricity%20generation.pdf

This gives the information about all the main fossil fuel generators connected to the NEM.

http://www.aemo.com.au/planning/419-0035.pdf

I don’t know how we could get 5-minute or 30-minute fuel use data from the generators.

Le Pair and de Groot’s analysis seems provisional, not only because it has yet to be tested by reality (because the researchers don’t have access to the necessary performance data) but also because their basic methodology is not well understood, whereas Hawkins’ calculator approach is transparent. I hope that Hawkins’ has been able to clarify and enhance the Dutch methodology approach, making it one that others can apply throughout the world.

I look forward to the unfolding of this article.