Posted on 02/15/2021 7:07:34 AM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
Solar and wind power, along with storage batteries, account for almost 95% of the proposed projects on ERCOT, Texas’ electric grid.
Right after Election Day, the U.S. formally withdrew from the Paris climate agreement, a process President Donald Trump had started in 2017.
But that didn’t stop Energy Transfer LP, a giant pipeline operator, from making a 15-year commitment to solar power. The Dallas company agreed to buy the solar energy from a 28-megawatt plant being built in Pecos County.
“This project marks a new milestone for us as our first dedicated solar-powered facility,” an executive said in announcing the deal.
An oil-drenched company in an oil-rich state embracing solar? It’s one more sign of how the energy business is changing, especially in Texas.
Here’s an even louder signal: Last month, almost 95% of the new capacity proposed for Texas' ERCOT electric grid was for solar, wind and storage batteries. Natural gas was a distant fourth and no coal plants were on the table.
In Texas, solar capacity is expected to double this year to over 5,000 megawatts. It’s projected to double again next year to over 13,000 MW, according to projects in the pipeline at ERCOT, the grid operator handling 90% of the state’s electricity.
During peak demand, 1 MW can power about 200 homes in Texas.
Natural gas remains crucial, fueling almost half of ERCOT’s load in the first nine months of 2020. Coal and nuclear are still important, too. But the future of Texas energy is going green.
(Excerpt) Read more at dallasnews.com ...
The Dallas Morning Pravda is deeply saddened...and frozen.
Someone should figure out how many windmills or solar panels it takes to charge an average electric car one day and require that many to be added to the system for every electric car sold or licensed in Texas.
It is ironic that this article was listed immediately above another thread entitled “Power cut across Texas as snow, ice blanket southern Plains”, which article makes clear that the windmills are ideled by the cold, just when they are needed most.
Nothing wrong with the desire of a carbon neutral environment as long as you do not freeze ot bankrupt the humanity that being green is supposed to save. A free market will get us to our green future. Not government.
My power was down two hours this morning.....we need to be building more coal and Natural gas plants....solor and wind is a pipe dream!!!
I’m here in North Texas where the temperature is currently 1 degree F. We are experiencing rolling blackouts due to the grid being at max capacity. One of my boys is a student at Texas A&M and he texted me this morning stating the windmills that provide power to campus are frozen! I have another son at the University of North Texas, which uses 3 windmills. I guarantee they are out of operation. I can’t wait for Joe to give us more of this great green energy!
They could use a little global warming right now.
My thoughts exactly - nice ice / snow storm you got there, hate to see you go without power
AND...Solar panels don’t work if they’re snow covered.
Nearly half of the wind turbines in the state of Texas froze in recent winter weather, hurting state power supplies, according to state authorities.
Other than it being complete balderdash. Most “renewable” energy takes a large proportion of all the energy it will ever produce to manufacture it in the first place.
“Going green” is mostly a giant lie.
That's 5KW per home. Texas homes must be small.
They’re celebrating a 28 MW solar installation. 28 MW is tiddlywinks. That is1/10th of a small coal plant. Heck, one of the big coal plants powering Atlanta is 3.4 GW, or >100X this solar installation. And it puts out power on a cold winter’s night.
Bookmark.
It is absolutely bizarre that people can falsely attach virtue to a thing and no matter how miserably it fails, still parade and preen their support of it.
Well THAT didn’t age well.
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