In his current letter, Fred Hubler identified, “There’s a rising consciousness that industrial wind and photo voltaic require giant areas, which implies that vitality should be despatched over nice distances.” What he meant by “larger distances” is comprehensible once we contemplate what it might take to switch the beforehand working and dependable 600 megawatt (MW) Duane Arnold Vitality Heart with photo voltaic and batteries.
To reliably provide 600 megawatts 24 hours a day one year a yr would require a 7,200 MW photo voltaic farm masking 36,000 hectares and a 13,200 MW-hr battery masking 132 hectares. That is for one of the best climate situations. Nonetheless, right here in Iowa, we will go days with out seeing the solar. Which means that the above figures tremendously underestimate the precise price of land and transmission necessities for counting on this renewable vitality.
Chet Sullivan
Marion
