I think Texas should transition to electric cars, that'll solve their problems.
“The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody has decided not to see.”
― Ayn Rand
Implying that green energy is the cause of Texas' current power problems?
Implying that green energy is the cause of Texas' current power problems?
Not at all green/nimby a major portion though. Northern IL is saving a lot of people from blackout or many other states would be facing same issue now. The Texas grid needs more ready reserve, needs plans to stop NG exports and reduce non residential consumption during crisis, not requiring green to replace the power they aren't able to supply because of wind/ice, not location sufficient power plants around metro areas (NIMBY), etc. main reasons. Green and the mentality around it would be more than half. If there were 5000 MWe of coal plants sitting in standby with 1 month piles of coal, no one would be losing power in Texas now. Germany in the same boat setting records for coal and wood (clear cutting SE forests - how f'd up is that) power production.
Several January's ago, Northern IL in the same exact situation and the loss of just one power plant would have put half the state in serious jeopordy. Texas must not have been paying attention.
See image below. We're exporting an amount equal to 12 nuclear reactors out of northern IL (and surround area) grid.
“The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody has decided not to see.”
― Ayn Rand
@morris-saluki Yeah, but carbon, don'tchaknow! 😭
“The best thing about freshmen is that they become sophomores.”
-- Al McGuire
@morris-saluki Yeah, but carbon, don'tchaknow! 😭
A couple of coal plants with piles of coal on the property would be pretty good right now for Texas. This shouldn't happen again. IL had a polar vortex "near miss" awhile back that could have been a disaster if one plant tripped. Now Ameren is prepared and has plans to save the gas for homes and power plants and we (IL plants) pumped a ton of electricity into various other grids preventing blackouts in MN, LA, IA and other places.
“The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody has decided not to see.”
― Ayn Rand
Years ago Texas formed its own electric grid, preventing almost all power producers from selling electricity across state lines. They wanted freedom from Federal regulation, and they have it. They were warned 10 years ago by the Feds that their grid was deficient. Most of the failure of their electricity producers was due to gas, coal, and nuclear plants.
Misinformation blaming it on green power by supporters of global warming is subterfuge by people with connections to the fossil fuel industry. https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/opinion/texas-frozen-wind-turbines-john-cornyn-b1803193.html?utm_source=reddit.com
from a director of the Texas grid:
"While ice has forced some turbines to shut down just as a brutal cold wave drives record electricity demand, that’s been the least significant factor in the blackouts, according to Dan Woodfin, a senior director for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which operates the state’s power grid.
The main factors: Frozen instruments at natural gas, coal and even nuclear facilities, as well as limited supplies of natural gas, he said. “Natural gas pressure” in particular is one reason power is coming back slower than expected Tuesday, added Woodfin.
“We’ve had some issues with pretty much every kind of generating capacity in the course of this multi-day event,” he said....
Wind shutdowns accounted for 3.6 to 4.5 gigawatts -- or less than 13% -- of the 30 to 35 gigawatts of total outages, according to Woodfin. That’s in part because wind only comprises 25% of the state’s energy mix this time of year...
..wind generation has actually exceeded the grid operator’s daily forecast through the weekend. Solar power has been slightly below forecast Monday.
“The performance of wind and solar is way down the list among the smaller factors in the disaster that we’re facing,” Daniel Cohan, associate professor of environmental engineering at Rice University, said in an interview. Blaming renewables for the blackouts “is really a red herring.”
@mr_woogers This storm(s) in SE Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana has/have broken over 140 temperature records. I don't know if there needs to be any blame when weather conditions like this happen. It gets into the cost/benefit ratio...more simply the "experts" take a gamble there won't be a 100 year type incident.
“The best thing about freshmen is that they become sophomores.”
-- Al McGuire
I'm pointing out fossil fuel propaganda: many were immediately blaming the green energy (including the Wall Street Journal and Morris, who evidently loves dirty energy), and that simply was only one small factor, as stated by a director of the Texas grid. A widely circulated picture of a frozen up wind turbine was actually taken in 2013 in Europe!
Sweden has wind power and ice and their turbines are built with deicing tools. They have been advising Texas on what they should have had! https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-9270965/Sweden-gives-Texas-advice-restart-frozen-wind-turbines.html
In fact, if Texas had not started brownouts when they did, they could have had power issues for months, according to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages the grid. Their grid has been subpar for years, because they have purposely chosen independence to avoid having to meet Federal standards.
Texas's power grid was 'seconds and minutes' away from going dark for months, per reports
https://www.yahoo.com/news/texass-power-grid-seconds-minutes-043127841.html
The initiating event was a grid level 40% loss of online generation in Texas due to windmills going off line (exactly what almost took down northern IL several polar vortexes ago). At the same time 7% of the grid output was lost due to solar. No grid can withstand a loss of nearly 50% generation that quick. This was more than "rolling reserve" could account for if any additional issues popped up. NG did initially offset the loss of wind but having to carry 60-70% of the Texas grid is more than ever intended for it to do when residential customers are using it at record rates. One of four nuclear plants (each has baseline capacity factor of about 95% - ten times higher than windmills) went down and some coal was lost. Wind didn't recover and more issues came up with NG and there were losses there. Sending a lynch mob to Austin would be a good start but regulations to require that wind and solar have offsetting rolling reserve that equals online wind and solar output during risky times (cold weather alerts, tornado, hurricane etc) would have prevented this. The wind and solar participate in baseline power and both are quite unreliable and never working when you need the power. Unreliable wind very nearly cost Northern IL blackouts several years ago and special restrictions were put into place on NG customers so NG could save the day when wind stops or windmills have issues. After the first scare with polar vortex, the next was not an issue for the state. If you look at the image the main issue (an ongoing issue) is wind % of the grid is not stable and disruptive to the grid there. Maybe they impose limits to only take "steady" wind power and eliminate the disruptive peaking. For the record knucklehead, I do not and have now nor ever worked in the the fossil fuel industry.
There are serious issues with Texas grid: Nuclear should be at least 20-30% of grid, wind and solar combined should never be allowed to carry more than 25% unless backed up with "rolling reserve" coal plants MW for MW, and Texas needs NG rules/practices like IL did after polar vortex years ago. You can't power a state with "hopes and dreams" as the great philosopher Mike Tyson once said, "Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth". Texas main issue is a problem with "social engineering" versus inadequate "electrical engineering". From the graph, simply limiting wind contribution to the grid once it started behaving in an unstable manner (most of the time) could have prevented this entire thing.
“The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody has decided not to see.”
― Ayn Rand
You know more about the problem than the managers of the grid? Laughable!
You know more about the problem than the managers of the grid? Laughable!
You mean those that recently resigned in disgrace?
“The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody has decided not to see.”
― Ayn Rand
