Can Wind turbines respond to changes in demand by raising or lowing energy out put?
by 
Tinanalynn
ANSWERS: 3
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The turbines themselves cannot, because they are only a small part of the Wind power generation system as a whole. The blades are connected to a generator, which can be connected to flywheels, batterries, capacitors, water reservoirs etc; where energy can be stored and utilized in accordance with fluctuations in in demand for power. The ability of the system to adapt, depends on the technology and type of system that is built. Just about all turbines are connected to other power generators than can be physicaly controlled, in order to make up for the lack of control over natural resources such as wind. So if there is more demand, no wind, they can ramp up traditional power generation, and if there is No demand, they can power down the generator, and let the wind turbine provide all the power, maybe charge some batteries etc.
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This answer applies to wind turbines used to generate electricity. First of all, there is something that you should know about electrical generator. They will produce only as much electricity as is actually used up to the limit of their generating capacity. So, if only a little power is needed, that is all that the generator will produce. If a lot is needed, then more will be produced. In the case of the wind powered generator, the capacity to generate power is determined by the physical capacity of the generator itself and the wind speed. So, these two factors limit the total possible electrical output of a wind turbine. Ideally a wind farm would use periods when the turbines can generate more power than is needed to supply the demand to store excess energy for times when the wind does not blow. However, as far as I know, we don't have any means of storing electricity that is really efficient enough to do so on this scale. So, when the wind does not blow, the power company must fire up a fossil fuel powered plant to make up for the short fall.
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Additional information: wind turbines can always reduce enegy output, but can not increase it abov what wind delivers. Here in germany it's a problem that the high voltage grid is extended too slow in less dense inhabited areas, where there are now a lot of wind turbines, but from earlier times a not so strong grid. So up to 25% op possible wind energy production remains unused. Storing energy is most simple in hydro powerplants - either when you have mountains pump water um to the top. Or simply don't let the water run in other places, store it a bit for times with less wind, so reduce hydro power production (sweden and danmark cooperate that way for example.) Next step can be storing of compressed air undergroung (good when combined with heating towns - produces a lot of eccess heat, but is not so efficent, or use vanadium flow batteries (efficient, high enough storaga capacity, but at this time too expensive. At the moment a strong long distance grid is the best "storage"
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