As you can see, the individual sites are extremely noisy, and the composite signal (the Pgrid at the bottom) is smoother and doesn't fluctuate as extremely. Thus the paper claims:
In the study region, using our meteorologically designed scale and orientation, we find that transmission affects output by reducing variance, slowing the rate of change, and, during the study period, eliminating hours of zero production. The result is that electric power from wind would become easier to manage, higher in market value, and capable of becoming a higher fraction of electric generation (thus more CO2 displacement).
...the east coast is not really where the wind is. This map from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory shows the distribution:
A very important point: the power in the wind is proportional to the cube of the wind speed, so those purplish regions in the high plains have about 10 times the potential per unit area of the yellowish-green regions on the coasts. That's where the wind is. And clearly, by feeding wind into the grid across the US, the performance is going to be smoother again, since a single high cannot cover the whole country.
It seems like with renewables, when feeding small amounts into a mainly fossil fuel grid, that's workable as they basically displace fuel use when they are available, but don't displace much capacity so the fossil fuel plants are still there to smooth the renewables out. An all-renewables grid would also be possible, but requires averaging over huge areas (and/or enormous amounts of storage). In between those extremes, things are going to be awkward.
In the study region, using our meteorologically designed scale and orientation, we find that transmission affects output by reducing variance, slowing the rate of change, and, during the study period, eliminating hours of zero production. The result is that electric power from wind would become easier to manage, higher in market value, and capable of becoming a higher fraction of electric generation (thus more CO2 displacement).
Please read full from EarlyWarning
NOTE: Gary said... The variability of surface winds is one of the main reasons that high altitude wind power (HAWP) looks more attractive (as well as the higher wind speeds). Looking at the east coast, one of the best locations for HAWP is near metropolitan New York. Here is (Gary's) post on this subject
This paper by Archer and Caldeira considers the intermittency problem for the New York area utilizing large battery storage for low wind periods.
