The Faroe Islands has achieved a leading edge in the utilization of wind as sole energy source in its power grid, with apparently none other country having demonstrated equivalent results.
According to Hákun Djurhuus, chief executive of Sev, the wind-swept islands’ utility company, experiments with the combination of synchronous condensers and battery energy storage for grid stabilization has made it possible for the Suðuroy region during certain periods of time to rely exclusively on energy generated by the Porkeri Wind Farm.
Ongoing research and development will likely make it possible to further extent the periods of full reliance on wind on Suðuroy and, ultimately, on all of the Faroe Islands, Mr. Djurhuus told energy magazine ORKUtrygd.
“One tangible factor that has entered the equation with the high amounts of wind and the efforts to utilize the wind—which has contributed to increasing the utilization—is the use of battery energy storage and synchronous condensers,” he noted.
“In this respect we’re conducting research and development on Suðuroy—we started there and are still doing it there—and have gained valuable experience from it, and we’re in the process of taking this to the other islands. It’s 10 times as costly… because on Suðuroy the scale of things are one-tenth of the rest of the islands—energy consumption, population and all of that.”
Similar development as has taken place on Suðuroy will now be carried out on Sandoy, Streymoy, and Eysturoy, according to Mr. Djurhuus.
“These developments contribute to utilizing wind power more better,” he said. “Our experience on Suðuroy show that we can actually have wind as the sole energy source on the grid… With these tools that are being introduced within the next two or three years, we can with confidence run the grid entirely on wind power. That is unprecedented anywhere in the world. So we’re developing solutions that have never been tried before, and this is also raising eyebrows abroad.”
