https://www.kxan.com/weather/green-energy-report-where-does-texas-rank-in-solar-wind-nuclear-energy/
I sit here in my room at home. It’s about 18 degrees Fahrenheit outside. I’ve paired my phone to my laptop computer to post this. [EDIT 3: In the daytime. At night, its more like 5 degrees.]
Starting at about one o’clock this morning, we’ve been experiencing rolling blackouts in North Texas.
Initially, they lasted about forty-five minutes.
This last one has been going on three hours. [EDIT: It stayed out from 10am to 6:00pm on Monday.] [EDIT 2: It went back out at 6:25pm on Monday.] [EDIT 3: power came on about 2am, Tuesday. Stayed on until about 4am. Came back on about 8:00am, and has been on until now (9am, Tuesday).]
I’ve written before on the dangers of “alternative energy sources” in California and the deterioration of that state’s power infrastructure and the resulting forest fires.
It turns out the environmentalist ideological rot has infested Texas, as well.
Over the past decade, Texas has increased it’s dependence on wind-power generation until it constitutes about 23% of the power generation in this state.
Guess what happens when it gets really cold, and there is snow and ice?
Of course, the media mentions that the increased wind is adding additional generation from other turbines.
Until they freeze over, I suppose.
[EDIT 4:] This editorial from a professor of Economics at the University of Michigan, Mark J. Perry, written last year, notes that Texas has become so dependent on wind power, that when part of that system fails, it can cripple the rest of the energy infrastructure with suddenly excess demand. As he notes, only Nuclear and Coal can provide the sort of round-the-clock stable energy production necessary for our electric generation system:
“As millions of Texans sweated through a heatwave last summer, the electric grid was pushed to its limits. Power demand surged to a record high. Texas wind generation — which provides more than 20% of the state’s power — flopped.
Because wind turbines don’t operate in the still air of July, reserve margins evaporated. Officials with ERCOT, the state’s main power supplier, looked on in disbelief as electricity prices spiked from the normal range of $20 to $30 per megawatt-hour to $9,000 not once but twice.
Had a power plant or two gone offline for maintenance or a gas pipeline ruptured, the entire electric power system would have come undone. Renewables supply power only when the wind blows and the sun shines, and there is no technology available for storing large amounts of power. Fortunately, there were no rolling blackouts or brownouts. Texas dodged the bullet…” https://www.detroitnews.com/story/opinion/2020/06/03/opinion-electricity-reliability-tightrope/3128224001/
This editorial notes that Texas got lucky in 2019. In 2021, our luck with wind power ran out.
