The Independent (U.K.) reported Sunday that the German goal of generating 10% of their energy from renewable sources is being undermined by the very poor performance of industrial wind turbines.
Germany has about a third of the world's wind turbines, with a capacity of about 16,000 MW, which according to the salesmen should be providing 8% of their electricity. But two of the major utility companies, RWE and Eon, report average output of only 16% and below 12%, respectively. The national grid therefore allows wind facilities to count only 6% of their capacity as available to customers, because so much of the time wind power is produced when it is not needed.
That means that Germany's 16,000 MW of wind power looks to the grid more like 960 MW, producing less than 1.5% of their electricity.
categories: wind power, wind energy, wind farms, wind turbines
