How can wind power replace the coal power of Nova Scotia if the wind doesnt blow all the time?
One of the most challenging obstacles to replacing our traditional electricity sources with wind power is the problem of fluctuating wind speeds, which in turn translate into fluctuating wind farm electricity outputs. While a coal fired power plant can produce whatever amount of electricity desired on a given day, a wind farm can only produce as much electricity as the wind speeds dictate. This means that although a wind turbine may be able to replace the power of a coal fired power plant some of the time, it will not be able to replace that power all of the time. This is unfortunate, because coal power plants require long start up times of multiple hours before their boilers are brought up to the required operating temperatures, and thus cannot compensate for the fluctuating output of a wind turbine. What is needed instead is a fast response power plant, also known as a peaking power plant. Peaking power plants include hydro electric or natural gas turbines which can be brought online
