The July 28 issue of The Economist has two articles on wind generated power and how to store it. A promising system is to build a wind generated compresor system and store the compressed air in underground caverns. When the power is needed the compressed air is used to run the generators. A site in Iowa is expected to be completed by 2011. There are two compressed air facilities, one in the US and one in Germany. But the compressors are run by electricity. When the rates are very low they store compressed air in caverns and when the price is high they use the air to run generators. In Norway the plan is to use the wind generated power to run pumps to move water up behind dams that will generate power.

I'm sure there are problems with each type of system but the point is that human inginuity is bringing alternate power sources into the main stream. One big problem with wind power is that the wind doesn't blow everywhere and too much power would be lost in transmission. But apparently that's a problem with AC but not DC. Norway is building a DC power grid between Scandinavia, the Netherlands and Germany. An Irish is looking a construct a DC grid between North and Baltic Seas wind farms and southern Europe. So the next time someone tells you why wind power just won't work now you can respond with the reasons it will work. Here's a link for the main article. For the sidebox search on the economist for "trapped wind" Tom

Here is a link that might be useful: Where the Wind Blows