Posted on 02/21/2021 8:09:32 AM PST by Onthebrink
I’m writing from Texas, so I’ll try to finish this column before the electricity goes out.
As you may have heard, we’ve had an unusually powerful winter storm down here and, in spite of the fact that every third household has a four-wheel-drive super-duty pickup truck, Texas has come to a standstill. When a little bit of ice settled on the freeway, a half a dozen people lost their lives in the ensuing 135-car pileup.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
There is a great podcast that hit The Federalist that talks about how Rick Perry signed a law stating that in 2005 25% of all energy in the Texas grid should be from wind. Yikes.
Blame who’s in charge. They got us.
It looks like some people have messed with Texas.
Now we await to see how Texas deals with this. Or is their slogan “Don’t Mess with Texas” an empty one?
I think in NYS, we’re supposed to go to 100%. Let’s see how they’re gonna pull that off.
This person is too squishy for my liking. 😖
The problem now is to ramp up natural gas power will take years....
I personally think wind and solar have a real place in the energy mix, just not the way states are doing it now...
If they want to encourage wind and solar power, Governments should subsidize to a greater degree the installation of solar and wind capacity for individual home owners and tie those systems to the grid....
that way you would take thousands of homes off the grid and feed any excess power back onto the grid, in the event of a situation like Texas faced, these users can fall back to grid power in an emergency...
“Should be” and “is assured to be” are as far apart as the earth and the sky, literally.
Windmills and solar panels work only within certain limited parameters, and these were obviously greatly exceeded. Texans want REAL reliable baseline power? Then invest in the technology of Thorium-based Molten Salt atomic reactors to power the electrical generation plants.
https://www.powermag.com/a-thorium-molten-salt-reactor-when-and-where-you-need-it/
As “green” as any technology now currently in existence, no emissions, very minimal atomic “ash”, highly scalable, and able to run 24/7/365 flat out, with no possibility whatsoever of the “China Syndrome” ever occurring.
A certain percentage of the fossil fuel sources failed. If there were no windmills they would have nothing but the fossil fuel generators to blame and they’d do just that.
MO has an odd way of dealing with that. If there's a forecast for rain and temps dropping below freezing, they put salt on the roads before they freeze. Crazy I know but it seems to work.
SOB’s in the State House better get off their duffs and do away with this crap wind and solar power! Pickens “picked” us dry then kicked the bucket!! AG Paxton should, along with Red State AG’s sue the Feds by telling them to butt out and the states will run themselves according to that states needs!!
There’s going to be more messing with Texas because democrats want to turn Texas blue. Look for democrat shock troops to start stirring the sh__ in Texas. No doubt their DOJ will uncover some scandal, any scandal to scandalized voters.
One word:
—winterize—
Power plants elsewhere have done it, and the ones that did winterize in Texas didn’t have the problems as those that didn’t.
Thanks for the information!
alloysteel wrote:
““Should be” and “is assured to be” are as far apart as the earth and the sky, literally.
Windmills and solar panels work only within certain limited parameters, and these were obviously greatly exceeded. Texans want REAL reliable baseline power? Then invest in the technology of Thorium-based Molten Salt atomic reactors to power the electrical generation plants.
https://www.powermag.com/a-thorium-molten-salt-reactor-when-and-where-you-need-it/
As “green” as any technology now currently in existence, no emissions, very minimal atomic “ash”, highly scalable, and able to run 24/7/365 flat out, with no possibility whatsoever of the “China Syndrome” ever occurring.”
Kevin D. Williamson has not gotten the memo that any connection with National Review tattoos you on your forehead as “dubious”.
Contrary to his writing, I know of no argument FOR Climate Change. Like MANY writers on the left who KNOW you will instantly quit reading their article the second you smell “leftyism”, he just uses that assertion to lay claim to “hey look, I’ve got some perspective going here...I’m more credible than that other guys...listen to what I say”.
The thesis of his article is correct though. Abbott failed to RESIST the Austin marxists gathering twice a month a few blocks from where Abbott sleeps at night so in recent years they tilted regulations towards fake wind and fake solar. He let his guard down or trusted somebody and got outflanked as a result. Like Trump learned, unless it’s family, you can’t trust anybody if your the top politico.
NONE of the “renewable” energy sources work without a backup to ensure reliability. They simply don’t make any power when the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing.
You need lots of battery backup or at least natural gas combustion turbine backup. But those will double your capital cost (if you choose natural gas fired CTs) or maybe cost you 4X or 5X your windmill and solar panel cost (batteries just are not practical). If you don’t face these realities, the power system will always be highly unstable and unreliable. People outside the power industry just do not understand the need for large rotating mass generators to stabilize the electrical system. Take those away and substitute generators that fluctuate rapidly in output (clouds blowing over, wind starting and stopping) and you have a highly uncontrollable and unreliable electrical system.
Green energy solutions are not required to pay their full costs (backup, disposal) which allows them to pretend to be cost-competitive. But when you do a full system cost accounting of what is needed to make them reliable, you find they cost FAR more than conventional generation systems.
The fetish for “green energy” is the result of an ignorant and easily conned populace combined with weak-minded politicians who all bought into the “global climate catastrophe” hogwash peddled by a few insane green lunatics that past 50 years.
It’s that simple.
“in the event of a situation like Texas faced, these users can fall back to grid power in an emergency...”
and when everyone has to do that at the same time due to extreme conditions, then the grid operator HAS to have on standby the same amount of generation capacity (and 100% of the nat gas supply to run them) as if the “renewables” didn’t exit at all, otherwise the population will end up in exactly the same condition as happened in Texas ... bottom line: renewables are unreliable no matter where located or how installed and 100% of fossil-fuel powered peak capacity has to be available at all times as backup, otherwise disaster WILL strike ...
There have been unintended consequences of deregulation of public utilities over the last four decades. There had been little incentive to plan, build or repair infrastructure. Profit over capacity and reliability of the grid. Throw in the enviro-nuts and explosive population growth,Texas all it took was a severe weather event to trigger a collapse in the grid.
BS article.
If Texas was tied into other states grid there would not have been any problem...but no Texas wanted to be independent.
Other states windmills in sub zero temps are working just fine.
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