World’s ‘solar and wind capital’ freezing due to snow ‘blanketing millions’ of solar panels

No, I think it would be a good read. It's very hard to get objective news in the US, as centrist viewpoints get punished from either side. A friend of mine from Texas says they are quietly happy the power grid is failing so as to make an excuse to join the national grid.

Ok, I'll look

 

I understand. Tx spin. The gov made up claims about wind power.
Downplayed gas and coal plants shutting down. Actually ignored them on faux tv.

 

One of the big causes of failure is that the steam systems freeze. [They use the coal to produce steam, to run steam turbines]

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-the-deep-freeze-caused-texas-to-lose-power/

You also see valves and other moving equipment fail. For example, valves in natural gas systems froze.

 

When in fact wind turbines in other states not run by idiots are doing fine in the big freeze.

 

Saying "clean coal" is like saying "fragrant vomit".

 

Why Texans are cold and in the dark
Opinion by Ed Hirs

". . . ERCOT created a system whereby generators, companies that own power plants, compete by bidding to provide electricity for the “day ahead” and in real time during the day. It is called an “electricity only” market. Think of it this way: If the players on the Washington Nationals were paid in the same fashion, only those players on the field for the game that day would earn a paycheck. Everyone else on the roster would be unpaid. Players would offer bids to play for the next day, each undercutting the other. . . .

The blame game has some pointing to frozen wind turbines as the cause of the blackouts. But the real problem in Texas is that generators have no financial incentive to invest in their own assets and keep them ready for winter, because the less stable they are, the more money they charge for their power.

Resolving Texas’s energy debacle requires major structural changes. An expedient solution is to create a capacity market similar to those in other states wherein generators would be compensated to keep their equipment ready. A second option is to return to a vertically integrated market that is focused on reliability such that power is available every day and the utilities earn a guaranteed return on investment for building out capacity that may only be required a few days a year when demand peaks. . . . "

 

Assigning Blame for the Blackouts in Texas
Posted on February 18, 2021 by curryja | 74 comments
By Planning Engineer

The story from some media sources is that frozen wind turbines are responsible for the power shortfalls in Texas. Other media sources emphasize that fossil fuel resources should shoulder the blame because they have large cold induced outages as well and also some natural gas plants could not obtain fuel.

Extreme cold should be expected to cause significant outages of both renewable and fossil fuel based resources. Why would anyone expect that sufficient amounts of natural gas would be available and deliverable to supply much needed generation? Considering the extreme cold, nothing particularly surprising is happening within any resource class in Texas. The technologies and their performance were well within the expected bounds of what could have been foreseen for such weather conditions. While some degradation should be expected, what is happening in Texas is a departure from what they should be experiencing. Who or what then is responsible for the shocking consequences produced by Texas’s run in with this recent bout of extreme cold?

Continue reading →

 

Please do better homework. We depend on fossil fuels for ~90% of our energy in the winter. Renewable energy sources met their projected output. Most of the failures involved natural gas lines freezing. Freezing weather impacted ALL energy sources. ALL of them. ALL. Including (in fact, mostly) natural gas and coal. The failures were NOT due to the type of fuel source. I didn't spend the past 3 days without power, with a below-freezing bedroom, boiling snow on my stove to fill my toilet tank, wearing ski clothes in a bed under every blanket we own, in literal three dog nights, just for intellectually dishonest right wingers to spread fake nonsense in hopes that they can treat the misery of myself and my neighbors (not to mention the deaths we will undoubtedly uncover) as a pathetic political football.

 

Abbott was lying. We use wind for less than 10% of our energy in winter. Several wind plants were still operable because they had been winterized -- enough to meet the output ERCOT has projected for them. The cold weather shut down gas power plants, coal plants, and nuclear plants as well . . . accounting for far, far more of the loss in energy than did wind or solar. Abbott is just trying to find a scapegoat so that no one looks to closely at him or his buddies.

 

Obviously, "or not."

Your evidence is limited to inference from data, just like the theory you reject.

 

We had far more failures with gas and coal due to Uri than we did from solar or wind. Maybe try taking your own advice and do that whole "thinking twice" thing before thoughtlessly parroting fringe talking points.

 

Northern states manage without problems through much colder weather, so it's obvious Texas was unprepared for prolonged freezing.

Nice article, btw. It touches on a key issue--what will we do to generate baseload power? Will we develop fusion in time? Nuclear reactors?

 

As far as I have read. Coal stations didn't fail, though cable supply from them did. The main issue was gas, due to lack of reserves held and a combination more power needed and that gas was also needed to heat most homes.

That and the fact Texas was off grid and couldn't call for power from out of state.

 

You ain’t seen nothin’ yet!

Texas will be one giant forest of broken water mains, gas and steam lines.

I fully expect all of Texas’ wind power to be up and running long before all of its fossil fuel infrastructure is back in normal working order.

And pity the poor public works guys. They’re going to be digging up street and sidewalks for weeks.

 

Come to Quebec then...

 

I would be amazed if steam systems froze while in use, that would defy the laws of physics

 

That's because we still rely more on gas and coal than we do on solar and wind, or we'd still have major outages across the state. All energy sources had issues.

 

Just heard on our news that Texas has no cap on its electricity charges. The wonderful free market economy in action. One woman has a $3,000 bill for electric used during this high demand period.

 

You won’t find it because it wasn’t there. He did make it up.

 

I’m not sure if that’s true in the sense that you might think.

I saw a similar article yesterday. And got called out for referencing it. As I could find out, my critic was right.

The huge spike in demand charges will be passed on to consumers. That is true.

But the costs will be amortized (meaning that the end user will almost certainly pay more than they would if they just got the big bill at once.

 

Ah thanks.
It could be this woman had previously optioned paying her bills as presented by her monthly meter readings and therefore fell foul of this extreme circumstance.

 

There is very little doubt in my mind that the windmills will be turning and producing their normal seasonal load of power long before the natural gas and coal plants can be repaired and brought back online.

You’re about to begin seeing lots of stories about broken gas and water mains all across Texas.

Some conservatives are trying to argue that the solution is making natural gas plants store reserve gas.

This makes no sense at all. First of all, in the ground is the cheapest way to store gas. Put it in a tank,and you have to keep it under pressure and temperature, which is not cheap. It’s also dangerous to place this storage in a populated area.

However, Texas may adopts such a requirement.

In which case, virtually every natural gas plant in Texas will have a batttery farm on the downstream side.

Far easier, safer, and more relatable to store generated electrictiy in a battery farm than to have a farm of highly flammable natural gas tanks. And almost certainly cheaper to build and operate.

 

No problem! One of our conservative friends pointed it out.

 

If you had read my posts, I said the same thing. It is stupid to blame wind and solar. All energy sources were affected. Fossil fuels make up 90% of our energy in the winter. Despite some turbines freezing, wind actually produced the amount it was projected to.

 

Second time at least that you have asserted this. Cite a source. Show video of these turbines running anywhere in the state for the previous 5 days.