At the current rate of wind development, says the BPA's Mainzer, the region's system of dams and power lines will start running into consistent operational problems around 2013, when wind in the agency's territory reaches total capacity of some 6,000 megawatts.
Ok, 6 gigawatts of capacity. Let's say you want to store 12 hours worth of wind capacity. 6GW * 12 hours is 260 terajoules, the equivalent of 61,000 tons of TNT. Not only do you have to build a system that can safely store and dischange that much energy, but it has to be cheaper than current power generation methods.
Ok, 6 gigawatts of capacity. Let's say you want to store 12 hours worth of wind capacity. 6GW * 12 hours is 260 terajoules, the equivalent of 61,000 tons of TNT. Not only do you have to build a system that can safely store and dischange that much energy, but it has to be cheaper than current power generation methods.