Effects of wind intermittency on reduction of CO2 emissions: The case of the Spanish power system

Renewable energy sources are believed to reduce drastically greenhouse gas emissions that would otherwise be generated from fossil fuels used to generate electricity. This implies that a unit of renewable energy will replace a unit of fossil-fuel, with its CO2 emissions, on an equivalent basis – with no other effects on the grid. But, the fuel economy and emissions in the existing power systems are not proportional with the electricity production of intermittent sources due to cycling of the fossil-fuel plants that make up the balance of the grid (i.e. changing the power output makes thermal units to operate less efficiently).