Environment>Wind>
Will the Lights Go Out When the Wind Stops Blowing?

Through the centuries, one problem has inhibited full use of the wind as a major energy source: its intermittent nature. In 1976, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation engineers proposed a solution to that problem.

Power from a large-scale wind farm could be tied in with existing dams, reservoirs and power plants of the Colorado River Storage Project. Reservoirs behind such dams as Flaming Gorge and Glen Canyon would serve as huge "energy batteries" storing potential power when the wind was blowing - and generating hydroelectric power when the wind stops.

Power generation at the hydro plants could be adjusted to accommodate energy production from a wind farm.

Congress later funded the construction of two wind turbines to test this concept.

The total cost of the study and turbine was more than$18 million in 1984.

 

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