Talk:Capacity factor

message: The Load factor and the Capacity factor are not the same thing. The difference is in the difference between the supply and the use. I agree that the concepts are similar but the only proper discussion of load factor is in the Demand Factor page. If I knew how to fix a redirrect I would make the Load Factor page myself. Can somebody fix this?  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.10.188.142 (talk) 18:39, 5 December 2012 (UTC)
thread_title: Load Factor

message: Perhaps some discussion needed on the misconceptions equating capacity factor with efficiency as often seen in the popular press. Something along the lines of how a wind turbine could theoretically run just off rated power for a year, and thus have a capacity factor of zero, yet still be generating a substantial amount of energy, etc, etc. Davagh (talk) 22:59, 30 June 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: This is a good point particularly as some parts of the media are prone to quote the typical capacity factor of wind turbines and name it as efficiency. I don't think the turbine you describe would have a capacity factor of zero though, it would be low. Biscit (talk) 14:54, 4 March 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Wind Energy 

message: We should have an explanation of power capacity and how it's derived, but I don't think it deserves its own article.  Can we rename this article to cover both? — Omegatron 10:24, 16 March 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Power capacity 

message: "The capacity factor of a power plant is the ratio of the actual output of a power plant over a period of time and its output if it had operated a full capacity of that time period."
All of the power-plant articles casually mention capacity factor, referring to this article.  But, the relevant time period is not stated!  I would assume that the implicit time period is "one year", generally.  This article should address this issue. -69.87.203.158 13:38, 5 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: The time period doesn't matter.  It's a ratio.  — Omegatron 10:24, 16 March 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Time period 

message: In this section, nuclear power is claimed to be able to generate over 100% of its capacity factor:
"Nuclear 60% to over 100%, U.S. average 92%.[3]"
The source doesn't go into any detail about these numbers.
It might be useful to explain how this is possible - does the over 100% factor imply that some nuclear plants are generating power in excess of their nominal capacity? Frekja (talk) 13:51, 23 October 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: I wondered that myself.  I don't see any other explanation for it, so I think it does imply that.  The source is supportive of wind though, so it seems unlikely that they would be mangling facts to make nuclear power look better than it is.  I just noticed that there are other data on nuclear over in Intermittent power sources that I haven't added here. Mishlai (talk) 14:02, 23 October 2008 (UTC)

text: Nameplate capacity should be upgraded too in that case though. --Ita140188 (talk) 03:08, 12 July 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  Typical Capacity Factors 

message: It's interesting.  Some people say "wind power is the epitome of intermittency" (see ); others say that large-scale wind power cannot be accurately described as being intermittent (see Greenhouse Solutions with Sustainable Energy#Wind power variability). Johnfos (talk) 07:23, 21 December 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Wind power

message: In this article, Capacity Factor == Load Factor
In my lecture however, we define 
load factor = average demand/maximum demand 
capacitor factor = average demand/installed capacity 
Obviously it always depends on definition but the above definition makes more sense to me...
--IluvatarTheOne (talk) 19:19, 27 December 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Capacity Factor VS Load Factor 

message: 1000MW *30 days * 24 h/day = 720,000 MWh. the article says 648,000MWh. Can someone clarify 115.186.48.195 (talk) 17:22, 15 February 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Conversion to MWh from MW 

message: I included the sentence below to convey to readers why the UK have a lower nuclear power capacity factor than the US, which boasts a much higher value. Sadly this pertinent piece of background info was deleted.
 It is worth noting that the UK is unique in not operating a nuclear power plant fleet dominated by the most common nuclear reactor design, in the form of the Light water reactor, but that the UK operates a fleet dominated by Advanced gas-cooled reactors, which is not reflective of the dominate reactor technology used by the rest of the world.:
Boundarylayer (talk) 02:41, 26 February 2013 (UTC)
thread_title: Background, and explanation for, the varying values from different countries

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thread_title:  External links modified 

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thread_title:  External links modified 

message: This article strangely leaves out any discussion of fossil fuel capacity factors, although they make up most of the grid.   — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A00:AB60:21E:D601:B913:F730:252C:BC3C (talk) 15:47, 4 October 2020 (UTC)
replies: text: Fossil fuel power plants are generally dispatchable load following power plants, so their capacity factor depends on external factors mostly independent of the technology (such as the composition of the rest of the grid, the total grid demand, etc.). This is in contrast to renewables such as solar and wind, whose capacity factors are quite consistent over a year for a specific location, or nuclear power, which tend to run at maximum capacity all the time so the capacity factor is actually a measure of their availability factor. --Ita140188 (talk) 01:26, 5 October 2020 (UTC)
thread_title: Capacity factor for fossil fuels

message: On the table under United Kingdom heading, what are the up and down arrows in the column headings? They seem to scramble it. Need some explanation please.Ian R Bryce (talk) 12:13, 21 October 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  Confusing table dynamics