Wind Power

1. 3 Responses to “In the event of a perfect solar storm would wind power help?”

2. By Colin on Sep 30, 2009 | Reply

   Solar storms cause electromagnetic fields, wind power is still electricity, and indirectly caused by the sun I might add, so it would be just as affected by a solar storm. I have no idea the odds of one hitting, sorry.

3. By quizzard123 on Sep 30, 2009 | Reply

   Having a wind generator in your backyard might help, but if the generator is wired into the major electrical grids, it is no more secure than any other sort of power. The risk from solar storms is in the long distance wires that carry electricity. Rogue currents can be set up in those wires during a storm, potentially overwhelming the capacities of the systems.

   In recent years, most developed countries have added safeguards to their systems, circuit breakers which will trip and prevent any major damage, so it’s really not a major risk any more.

4. By tomsing98 on Oct 2, 2009 | Reply

   Solar activity causes blackouts when the charged particles of the solar wind interact with the Earth’s magnetic field. The magnetic field of the Earth changes, and this creates electric current in long wires. The reasons behind it involve some pretty complicated physics, but we’re talking about wires at least 1 km in length. The resulting electric current can overload components hooked up to those wires, which is how the blackout is created.

   It doesn’t really matter what’s providing the power to the system - coal, nuclear, wind, etc. Once it’s converted to electricity at the power plant, it’s all the same. If it’s being transmitted over long distances, you’re going to need long wires, and that means it can be affected by a solar storm.

   However, if you’re generating your own power, and not transmitting it very far, you might not be connected to the power grid. If you had a windmill in your back yard, it probably wouldn’t be affected. But if you had your own coal power plant in your back yard, it wouldn’t be affected either!

   How often do they happen? NOAA has a scale for rating the severity of geomagnetic storms, radiation storms, and radio blackouts caused by solar X-rays. Their chart says that an extreme geomagnetic storm which may cause blackouts happens on average 4 times per solar cycle, which is every 11 years. (Extreme forms of the other two types of event happen less than 1 time per cycle, on average.)

   We’re actually getting close to the peak of the solar cycle, which is when you’d expect the most solar storm activity. As we get more and more dependant on technology, this becomes a bigger concern, but even in the 1850s, it was a problem. The biggest solar storm in recorded history shorted out telegraph systems in the US and Europe!

   I hope that helps you out!

Sorry, comments for this entry are closed at this time.