Consideration #1: Wind in the United States I think has a capacity factor of only about 33%, which means if there is 30,000 wind installed over there, it only provides about 10,000 Megawatt hours. So perhaps the 19% figure is the installed capacity, which means that only about 7% of the overall energy need is met.
Consideration #2: Wind patterns (at least in the US...I assume it is the same over there) are such that the highest wind speeds are generallyovernight (when loads are down), and is the wind speeds are at a minimum over the day peak, especially on hot days. For instance, the wind output in the Midwest US last summer over the peak hour of the summer was 11 Mw's.....yes, I said 11 Mw's. Therefore, even though coal or gas generation is displaced overnight, you can't permanently shut it down because you need it to meet peak loads over the summer or winter peaking conditions.
Consideration #3: Wind is very unpredictable, which means that the utilities must have extra generation on line capable of responding quickly to second to second wind variations. Therefore, even though the wind capacity is installed, it is doubtful they could do away with much of the generation that the wind was supposed to replace.
Wind patterns (at least in the US...I assume it is the same over there) are such that the highest wind speeds are generallyovernight
It seems counterintuitive to me
Yes, they are. And they are NOT 'facts'. Here was someone elses rebutal from another site. >>>Examining the Danish Energy Agency’s report, Energy Statistics 2007, it is clear that Denmark had very little wind power in 1980, but significant wind power in 2007 (output of 38 terajoules in 1980 and 25,823 terajoules in 2007). On the other hand, consumption of oil for electric power production has fallen (from over 47,000 TJ in 1980 to just over 11,000 TJ in 2007); as has consumption of coal (from near 214,000 TJ in 1980 to almost 167,000 TJ in 2007). If you’d rather think in gigawatt-hours rather than terajoules, you can divide the TJ numbers by 3.6 to get GWh. <<<<