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Wind Problems: Intermittency, Negative Prices and “Loop Flow”/ Julian Silk, International Energy, IAEE blog, 22/05/2012http://blog.iaee.org/?p=47727Governor Martin O’Malley has resubmitted his plans for offshore Maryland wind once again for the 2012 legislative session.  The specific legalities of the bill are in http://mlis.state.md.us/2012rs/billfile/hb0441.htm, with a statement of claims about the bill in http://www.energy.state.md.us/documents/MDOSWEnergyActof2012.pdf.  The bill has been passed by the Maryland House, after being revised so that the wind farm is less than half the size originally proposed (see http://www.examiner.com/article/maryland-house-passes-maryland-offshore-wind-energy-act-of-2012), but has stalled in the Maryland Senate.  It is unclear whether the bill will be considered in the second of the special sessions Governor O’Malley proposes for the summer.  In view of these uncertainties, it is worth considering 3 separate problems that plague all wind systems, and which are especially relevant for this proposal: intermittency, negative prices, and “loop flow”.  They all have the same qualitative characteristic...