Your choices:
1 Electricity; 2 Wind; 3 Electricity
| What is your resource? | What do you want to deliver? | What is the service the customer wants? |
| Biomass (digestible sludge) | District cooling | Comfortable indoor climate |
| Biomass (fermentable sludge) | District heating | 3 Electricity |
| Biomass (solid) | 1 Electricity | Process cooling (< 0 °C) |
| Geothermal | Fuel: Gaseous | Process heat/steam (50 - 150 °C) |
| Sunshine | Fuel: Liquid | Process heat (150 - 1000 °C) |
| Water | Fuel: Solid | Process heat (> 1000 °C) |
| 2 Wind | Local cooling (ind. house) | Transport |
| Residual oils/fats etc | Local heating (ind. house) |
In many cases, electricity is assumed to be the main energy carrier desired by the end users, but this is not necessarily true.
For the end user, the unique thing with electricity is its flexibility or, in thermodynamic terminology, its high share of exergy. Electricity can be converted into mechanical work, into illumination, into extremely high or low temperatures, into pressure, into radiation of different wavelengths; it can be used to run home electronics, for transportation and – basically – any number of applications. Because of the high quality and the high availability with electricity it should be priced accordingly and the use of it should be limited to such applications where the unique features are fully valued.
The high share of exergy in the wind means that production of electricity can be done at reasonably high efficiencies, the theoretical limit being about 60% efficiency. Wind generation is the second best option – second to hydropower – for electricity production.
Hence; if the end user desires and really needs electricity, then wind-power is one of the major alternatives.