Question 9.3: If it is assumed that the wind is available 25% of the time ......
If it is assumed that the wind is available 25% of the time at a wind speed of 15 m/s, how many wind turbines of 2 MW are necessary to provide the same total energy as a nuclear plant of 1000 MWe producing 8 TWh each year? What is the power of the nuclear plant?
Because the efficiency for electricity production of a nuclear plant is 33%, a power of 3000 GW wil be needed. A 2-MW wind turbine produces 4.38 GWh per year. To produce the same amount of energy, one would need 1826 wind turbines. However, producing the same amount of energy does not mean that this can meet the demand of the consumer at all times. Indeed, when there is no wind there is no electricity. This means that the wind turbines have to be coupled to an electricity storage system. Pumped hydrostorage can do the job if the wind turbines are located in a region where this facility exists. Since the efficiency of pumped energy storage is not 100%, additional electricity is needed to meet the demand. This means that on the order of 2000 wind turbines of 2 MW are needed to do the same job as a nuclear reactor.