Anyone opting for renewable energy does not have to worry about power failures. The feed-in of electricity produced from wind is predictable. Thanks to meteorological forecasts, the network operators can very precisely calculate the quantity of electricity as well as the time and location of when it is fed in.

If, e.g. East Friesland is windless, this power drop is balanced out regionally, nationally and Europe-wide via the existing electricity network. On the other hand, regional surpluses of electricity produced from wind are taken up by the electricity network and forwarded.

 

Renewables as reliable team players

Decentralised and widely scattered renewable energy systems can support and complement each other. If there is no wind or sun available, e.g. hydroelectric or biogas plants, wood-fired or geothermal power stations can reliably stand in and help out around the clock. This interaction requires no “shadow power stations" at all to stand in if there is a lull in the wind. Between 2000 and 2006, 16,000 Megawatt new wind energy output was erected in Germany alone. If the "shadow power stations" assertion were true, this development in capacity would have had to have been accompanied by a corresponding development of "shadow" power station capacities. In fact, 9,000 Megawatt output from nuclear and coal-fired power stations was shut down during this time. However, renewable energy's increasing share of electricity consumption does require limited development of the electricity networks in order to enable renewable electricity to be better distributed, e.g. through the interaction of North German wind energy and Scandinavian water power. Electricity supply and demand can and must achieve a sensible connection in the future. Even today, time-controlled electricity consumption makes sense for bulk users such as refrigerated warehouses. They can use the electricity supply peaks and relieve the network. Thanks to intelligent electricity meters, end users could use their household appliances with particularly favourable tariffs during surplus supply of electricity from wind power.

 

The Combined Power Plant 

One project of the renewable energy industry shows how a demand-oriented power supply is possible at any time with 100 % renewable energy: The Combined Power Plant links and controls wind, solar, biomass and hydraulic power plants distributed over the whole of Germany. Wind turbines and solar modules make their contribution to the electricity generation precisely as predicted. They are supplemented if necessary by biogas plants and a pumped storage power station. In future, this modular structure can be extended to include additional storage technologies such as the batteries of electric cars.