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If Texas's central grid only relied on solar & wind energy, would anyone have electricity?

Posted on 2/18/21 at 8:58 am
Posted by member12
Bob's Country Bunker
Member since May 2008
32121 posts
Posted on 2/18/21 at 8:58 am
Looks like wind particularly went from about 20,000 Megawatt hours on February 6-8, down to nearly 0 on February 15-16th.

When someone says that this isn't about green energy, they aren't 100% truthful. Solar was never a reliable generator and still isn't. Wind output collapsed. Natural Gas plants froze but are still supplying the bulk of power to Texas according to ERCO. Unfortunately demand has spiked because of the cold weather and Texas needs all sources running optimally.

Am I off base in interpreting the below chart this way?



This post was edited on 2/18/21 at 9:01 am
Posted by The Boat
Member since Oct 2008
164337 posts
Posted on 2/18/21 at 9:00 am to
Going by that on some days wind is the biggest energy producer.
Posted by LSU316
Rice and Easy Baby!!!
Member since Nov 2007
29313 posts
Posted on 2/18/21 at 9:01 am to
quote:

Am I off base in interpreting it this way?


Nope....any power source in Texas will have issues in temperatures that are in the teens and single digits for multiple days, but as your graph clearly shows natural gas picked up as much of the slack as it could and is the reason that some people stayed on and that people are coming back online today.
Posted by LSUGrrrl
Frisco, TX
Member since Jul 2007
33196 posts
Posted on 2/18/21 at 9:01 am to
No bc wind and solar were the first to stop generating power.
Posted by c on z
Zamunda
Member since Mar 2009
127449 posts
Posted on 2/18/21 at 9:03 am to
Perhaps if the wind turbines were better designed to handle these types of conditions, things wouldn’t look as bad.
Posted by 21JumpStreet
Member since Jul 2012
14655 posts
Posted on 2/18/21 at 9:04 am to
Now, no. Technology advances.
Posted by dewster
Chicago
Member since Aug 2006
25395 posts
Posted on 2/18/21 at 9:04 am to
If you want the bulk of American's to have electric cars, you want more natural gas power plants. Sort of like the ones Entergy Louisiana has built in the past decade outside Lake Charles and near New Orleans.

Nukes are the obvious answer, but the federal government changed their mind about storing the spent fuel rods. So now they are stored all over the country at nuclear plants.
Posted by The Spleen
Member since Dec 2010
38865 posts
Posted on 2/18/21 at 9:07 am to
No, and nobody with any credibility is arguing for any state to rely solely on wind and solar.
Posted by SEC 440
Member since Jan 2021
283 posts
Posted on 2/18/21 at 9:10 am to
I think of a portfolio when it comes to mitigating community risk. Better to be diversified than have all eggs in one basket.

I don't believe type of energy was the problem but rather an anemic preparation for an unusual event. ERCOT and PUC along with political football shenanigans for at least a decade
Posted by Adam Banks
District 5
Member since Sep 2009
32007 posts
Posted on 2/18/21 at 9:10 am to
Apparently it’s ok for wind power to contribute almost nothing when in a crisis and we blame fossil fuels for not continuing to pick up all their slack.
Posted by bigberg2000
houston, from chalmette
Member since Sep 2005
70064 posts
Posted on 2/18/21 at 9:10 am to
Can we stop making this about “green” energy and gas. The shite stopped working correctly. People need to blame shite and they always point to what they consider the bad guy.
Posted by Meauxjeaux
98836 posts including my alters
Member since Jun 2005
40076 posts
Posted on 2/18/21 at 9:12 am to
All I get from that chart is why the frick are we even still going with solar?

Want solar to power your outdoor walkway lights or front gate or some things in your home? No problem. To power the grid? That's nucking futs.
Posted by The_Duke
Member since Nov 2016
3676 posts
Posted on 2/18/21 at 9:15 am to
What happened here in Texas had nothing to do with renewables
Posted by Ronaldo Burgundiaz
NWA
Member since Jan 2012
6561 posts
Posted on 2/18/21 at 9:36 am to
Dood, the glowy box in my living room told me that renewables will handle the future and I have to trust the experts. We are going to need a bigger Green New Deal.
Posted by ELVIS U
Member since Feb 2007
9940 posts
Posted on 2/18/21 at 9:40 am to
And what is solid and consistent throughout this chart, Nuclear. This is the only solution.
Posted by 76Forest
Member since May 2011
124 posts
Posted on 2/18/21 at 9:45 am to
Bingo! Wind went from big supplier (because of windy weather) to tiny supplier! It is unreliable! That is just a fact.

So, we perversely incentivized wind and solar, while we disadvantaged nuclear, oil and gas. When the chips are down, we had to go get the gas (some of which was off line because the solar and wind sources were “preferred” and some was offline due to COVID demand implications). It took a little while, but gas rallied.

We had really cold weather in Texas 30, 40, 50 years ago, and didn’t have this kind of debacle. You cannot make wind reliable - it won’t make power when the wind doesn’t blow AND it won’t make power when the wind blows too hard. Also, if it freezes up apparently.
Posted by Dr RC
The Money Pit
Member since Aug 2011
58125 posts
Posted on 2/18/21 at 10:32 am to
It doesn't matter what power source we use if the operators are too damn cheap to winterize their equipment.

I don't know why some people feel the need to make this about wind power when the reason we are getting fricked has nothing to do with the power source.

Oh wait yes I do. Politicians are trying to confuse everyone into getting mad at the wrong thing so their donors don't have to actually spend the money to fix their shite for when this inevitably happens again.

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