Ireland: Wind generation exceeds demand for electricity for the first time ever

BuddyTheBeefalo@lemmy.ml to World News@lemmy.world – 338 points –
Ireland: Wind power outstrips electricity demand for the first time
euronews.com
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Why do they have to burn fossil fuels? That's fucking stupid

Im torn between giving an upvote for asking a question or giving a downvote for your following sentence given the answer was in the comment you were replying to.

Also, if you ask a question wouldn’t it be wise to wait for the answer before also passing judgement on something.

“Why is this like this? That’s fucking dumb.” Doesn’t quite work does it? How can it be dumb if you don’t know how it works. Why should we trust your assessment on its dumbness if you’ve already conceded you don’t know.

They’re not asking how, they’re asking why. And something can absolutely appear as dumb without you knowing why something is one way or another.

It might not be dumb, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it doesn’t look dumb. Besides that’s entirely subjective.

You're such a removed for typing up 3 paragraphs to something that took me 3 seconds to type up in a passing thought ngl

And not even answering the question

If you want an answer to your question, spend your 3 seconds typing it into a search engine or AI.

No need, someone helpful actually explained it nicely without being a fedora tipping idiot

Base load generators cant adjust their output quickly enough to match the daily demand curve. Your options are to keep them online at a fixed level 24/7, or cut them entirely. If you don't have enough renewable production to meet overnight demand, you have to meet that demand with base load generators, which means you have to keep those generators online. If you have to keep them online, and wind is providing more power than is being demanded, you have to cut the wind production to match demand.

To get those (usually coal-fired) generators offline, you need to drop your overnight consumption, add storage, switch to non-fossil baseload generators (nuclear), use less efficient "peaker" plants (usually gas turbine generators fired by natural gas or oil), or some combination thereof.

You're right, it is "fucking stupid", but it is due to the functional limitations of the equipment they currently have available. With those limitations, the best option is to export your excess wind production to someone who needs it, and improve your own grid to reduce reliance on fossil fuels.

Renewables suffer from intermittency .. production depends on whether the wind is blowing or the sun is shining .. and they can't be ramped up quickly to cope with increased demand. So you need a baseline source to take care of that and the only options we have are fossil fuel or nuclear.

Ireland outlawed nuclear in 1999. Not a NATO member quite famously too

It is in place because using entirely renewable power means changes have to be made to the country's electricity grid.