Windmills are an expensive fad
(media.greatawakening.win)
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Most of the windmills here in central OR don't even kick power to the grid full time. It's very strange. The farmers get huge subsidies for them so they welcome them. But there's a strange system of how and when the power flows into the grid. Literally most of them are spinning for nothing.
NOTE: I learned this from an electrical engineer up here. He works on large data centers. I wish I could better articulate what he was explaining to me.
My guess is that there is limited capability to store the power they generate. So any electricity that they generate when there is already excess on the grid is just thrown away.
Sorry, I realize you're just describing it in common terms, but the amount of 'storage' the grid can hold is gone in about 1/60th of a second. Any excess power supplied to the grid is just lost.
Storage systems like UPS will kick in when the power drops, but that's not feeding back to the grid.
Yes, there are multiple 'cutoffs', below X mph wind it might spin but won't generate power. Above Y mph and they shut off.
That would be an accurate assessment if the whole thing is connected to a central transformer that ties into the grid, the grid managers determine when it can supply the grid, how much power and for how long. I'm somewhat aware of that sequence, but no direct experience in that level. One detail I did learn was that, for solar at least, if they say they produce 150 MW and when it's time to connect they only have 100 MW, they gotta ramp a diesel generator to supply the difference.