‘Dunkelflaute’ energy policy enters the doldrums

I learned a new German word this week, via Zerohedge. It turns out that the Germans really do have a compound word to describe everything:

The UK Telegraph provides some additional detail on the phenomenon:

A “Dunkelflaute” period of weather has sent wind power generation tumbling in the UK, Germany and other parts of northern Europe.

The phenomenon – which translates roughly as “dark wind lull” – describes periods when wind speeds plunge, leading to little to no generation from turbines.

On Tuesday, it meant wind farms were only able to meet 3-4pc of the UK’s electricity demand during the morning and evening peaks, with gas-fired plants instead fired up to meet around 60pc of demand.

Yet another thing to worry about when trying to run a northern-latitude, advanced-industrial economy exclusively on wind and solar power: winter.

As today happens to be a relatively cold, cloudy late-November day in the Metro, I thought I would check on power production for the larger MISO multi-state region:

Coal, natural gas, and nuclear are providing around 2/3 of the total power demanded this morning. Put another way, solar, wind, and nuclear are providing well under half of the total.

Each summer in “GridWatch,” I document a related phenomenon, where on hot summer days, wind output is low and high electrical demand persists well beyond sunset.

As you know, Minnesota state mandates will soon require that solar, wind, and nuclear carry the entire load. These mandates make no exception for dunkelflaute. Utilities will not be allowed to flout the law, dunkel or no dunkel.

The latest plan which appears to have the approval of the state Public Utilities Commission, would allow the state’s largest electric utility, Xcel Energy, to retain their nuclear plants and reserve 20 percent of their generating capacity for natural gas-fueled plants. But that only gets you to 40 percent, well below the margin needed to cover dunkelflaute.

The recent election results in Minnesota, which ended the DFL trifecta in state government, offer an opportunity for a course correction. While there is no chance for repealing the mandates in the next two years, surely there is room for some common-sense, bipartisan compromise that can make exceptions to avoid the worst outcomes.

Or we can just freeze in the dark.