Wide Area Wind Systems could be more reliable than present regional systems
In my recent blog post
Wide Area Wind Systems I discuss research that points out ways that Wind Power systems can provide reliable base load generation capacity witthout the use of supplimental coal or pumped hydro generation to even out the wind's variability. The key concept is that the wind generators are linked to a transmission system larger than the huge weather systems that would cross over the generation zone. Typically such systems would need to be 2000km or larger in order to deliver immunity to storms that would boost or lower the output and affect the capacity factor of the overall system.
Such systems might be installed in places suchas the West Coast of South America, along the margin of Austrailia, perhaps along the coast of India.
Here is an article in the New York Times about the creation of the first North American wind power production installation: http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/26/who-will-build-the-first-offsh...
The Danish offshore system and references to the Chinese 100 megawatt system are here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/27/business/energy-environment/27wind.html
Bruce Bagnoli
