Posted on 12/23/2019 6:26:01 AM PST by The Houston Courant
The wind industry once again has received a holiday season extension of its multi-billion-dollar tax break, the production tax credit (PTC).
The extension—one of the many times Congress has refused to let the PTC expire over the last 27 years—is included in the $1.4 trillion government spending package approved by Congress last week, despite claims by wind developers that wind is so cheap they don’t need tax breaks anymore.
What this means for Texans is more summers spent questioning if we will have enough electricity—and money—to keep the lights on.
Earlier this month, ERCOT—the grid manager for most of the state—released its forecast of the reserve margin between projected demand and supply in the Texas electricity market. ERCOT estimates a reserve margin of 10.6% for the summer of 2020, up 23 percent from this year as a result of increased capacity from new renewable and small gas-fired generators.
The increased reserve has both good and bad news for Texans. The good news is that, contrary to naysayers, Texas’ competitive electricity market is working by providing incentives for the building of new generation, as it has for almost 20 years now.
The bad news is that much of the new generation coming online is from wind and solar farms. In fact, wind and solar farms provide significantly more electricity than the reserve margin. So, if the weather does not cooperate one hot summer afternoon next August, Texas is going to face some challenges.
Why should Texas—with perhaps the most robust energy market in the world—be so close to the brink of going dark? The answer is that renewable energy subsidies like the PTC enable renewable energy generators to cash in by pushing far more reliable energy sources off the grid.
Since wind and solar power depend on windy and cloudless days to function, this means that the reliability of the Texas electric grid is dependent on the whims of Texas weather. As ERCOT’s calls for conservation this past summer show, sometimes the wind just doesn’t blow enough to ensure sufficient electricity to reliably power the grid.
In these cases, renewable generators simply don’t show up, even if the electricity is needed. But when the conditions favor them, they use the subsidies to engage in predatory pricing that allows them to sell as much electricity as they can generate, whether we need it or not.
Texas policymakers and regulators have refused to make renewable generators pay for the costs they impose on the system because of this anti-competitive behavior. Instead, the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC) has decided to force consumers to subsidize all generators through several administrative price adders.
This is just part of the costs consumers and taxpayers are paying—billions of dollars per year—for the privilege of teetering on the edge of reliability. At the national level, Congress’ Joint Committee on Taxation estimates that federal subsidies for renewables (including electric cars) over the next five years (beginning in 2019) will total $45.3 billion. Texan’s share of this, plus our own renewable subsidies, will likely surpass $10 billion during this period.
Most of these costs are hidden from Texans. The decisions to grant these subsidies for the most part take place in Congress, the PUC, and county commissioners courts with almost no public input. And the costs are hidden in our federal income taxes, property taxes, and electricity bills with no way for us to understand how much we are paying in subsidies.
The Texas Legislature must shed light on these hidden dealings and end the subsidies. Texas can keep its lights on while reducing energy costs, but only if Texas policymakers are willing to make renewable generators pay their way on the Texas electricity grid.
What this means for Texans is more summers spent questioning if we will have enough electricity—and money—to keep the lights on.
Un-possible. 2 years ago they were telling us they had to pay people to use electricity in Texas. The alternative energy day of reckoning is fast approaching.
Pssssst..... maintenance and operating costs figure in at some point. Decentralized electricity generation has thousands of problems. One maintenance crew at one site has to be replaced by hundreds of crews at thousands of sites, with tens of thousands of spare parts and man hours, where just a few were sufficient before.
So you really believe that billions of dollars have been invested in distributed generation without anyone ever considering maintenance costs?
State of the art SCADA and integrated predictive maintenance make wind turbines more reliable and less prone to unplanned downtime.
As of 2016, Minnesota’s wind farms generated 3.8 MW out of the state’s total or 18%. Installed nameplate capacity vs. actual production data proves your assertion that 1/3 are “in failure ore offline” is highly incorrect.
Some assume that when they see some wind turbines not turning on a windy day they have failed. That’s possible but generally not the case. Each turbine is individually controlled and operates when the wind at it’s location is within a specific range (too much has the same effect as too little wind). Planned maintenance is another reason, and is factored into the production schedule. Curtailment also occurs when there is no place to send the power that is generated due to inadequate investment in transmission lines. A key benefit of distributed generation is that output is scalable, and can be adjusted by shutting down some turbines at the request of customers or grid regulators based on generation and consumption needs.
And sure. Those units not running could be down for scheduled or unplanned maintenance. I am also sure reliability costs per mw will improve as failure analysis works it's way back to design.
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