Sustainable Energy

Question

An upper limit of 24 kWh/d/p on the power available from wind in Australia was presented, subject to certain assumptions. The installed wind capacity in Australia in December 2012 was 2.576 GW. The national average capacity factor for wind is 30%, and the Australian population is 23 million people.

Using the information provided above, what percentage of the upper limit (of 24 kWh/d/p) was achieved by Australian wind farms in December 2012?

Answer 1

 Australia has around 2.6 x 10^9 Watts or 2.6 x 10^6 kilowatts installed, times 24 hr/day gives around 6.2 x 10^7 kWh/day. They only actually yield 30% of that. Divide that total actual power generation by the number of people, and you get around 0.81 kWh/day/person. Theoretically, wind could provide 24 kilowatt-hours per day for each person, but right now they only get around 0.81 kWh/day/person. 0.81 out of 24 is around 3%. Go plug in the numbers (and units!) to get a more precise answer.