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

I don't know if anybody posted this yet. Probably deserves its own thread.

No, frozen wind turbines aren't to blame for Texas' power outages | The Texas Tribune

An official with the Electric Reliability Council of Texas said Tuesday afternoon that 16 gigawatts of renewable energy generation, mostly wind generation, was offline. Nearly double that, 30 gigawatts, had been lost from thermal sources, which includes gas, coal and nuclear energy.

“Gas is failing in the most spectacular fashion right now,” Webber said.

Dan Woodfin, a senior director at ERCOT, echoed that sentiment Tuesday.

“It appears that a lot of the generation that has gone offline today has been primarily due to issues on the natural gas system,” he said during a Tuesday call with reporters.

Still, some have focused their blame on wind power.

 

OH MY MY my most humble and sincere apology madam! It was most assuredly not meant to show disrepect!! My dear deceased mama taught me better. And my 8 years living in Acadiana left me most appreciative of Louisiana ladies my Mother raised in Arcadia and Monroe/West Monroe. My grand daddy as a young boy having swam across the Ouachita river into the hands of the local sheriff who promptly marched him straight to his Daddy.

What kind of timber I bet they love the CO2 coming out your woodstove!

 

While I'm born and raised in southeast Louisiana, for the past 6 years, I now live in northern AR in the ozarks, so most of the timber at my higher elevation is hardwoods like red and white oak, hickory, and ash which all burns super hot. We were -12 this morning and the house was super comfortable.

No offense at all either, I thought you all knew I am female.

 

It's both. Citing an issue with gas does not make the wind turbine failure go away.

 

Wind turbines that are not working are part of the problem as they supply 1/3 of the state's power supply. The other part of the problem is the natural gas supply for the power plants. Both problems combined have led to what's going on now. And now there is a severe ice storm about to happen in eastern TX.

 

Lost wind power makes up only a fraction of the reduction in power generating capacity that has brought outages to millions of Texans across the state during a major winter storm.
https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02/16/texas-wind-turbines-frozen/

 

Yes, and . . . . ?
It remains undeniable that failed wind power is part of the problem.

 

A miniscule part.

No, frozen wind turbines aren't the main culprit for Texas' power outages

 

But if the left had their way......would frozen wind turbines be a 'miniscule part' of the problem? Or would frozen wind turbines be a massive problem?

 

Lost wind power is 13% of the deficit. That's not miniscule.
Are frozen wind turbines to blame for Texas power outages ...
www.kxan.com › news › are-frozen-wind-turbines-to-b...
7 hours ago — On Monday, frozen instruments and a limited gas supply forced 30,000 MW/h of power offline. This was half of what ERCOT believed they would ...

 

Which makes fossil fuels - in Texas! - 87%. Third grade math proves the OP is bullshit.

 

Nope. The OP is actually justified. Rather than balancing the risk to fossil fuel generation, wind power added to it.

 

If "the left" (read: rational humans) had their way, natural gas pipelines and power generation would be weatherproofed like northern providers, residential users would have priority, and Texas would be part of the national grid.

 

SOME wind turbines, many are working just fine!

Just some hot summers a while back in the South had to turn off some nuclear power system because the cooling water streams got too hot to be able to cool the nuclear reactors.

Man, these Texas whimps are the very defination of "snowflakes"!

Get a coat on and rough it for a couple days, or install some backup heat! There was has been 4 years of Republicans and Trump power to gear up more "clean coal", but they all just partied and blew taxpayer money from "subsidies" to nowhere except fossil fuel pockets.

 

Well yes. That's exactly what the article said. Not sure what your point is. This thread and others is placing blame on renewables to the exclusion of gas, which is a greater factor in the blackout. That it is both is the point.

 

Exactly. The OP wrote, Folks, putting too many eggs in one [green] basket without a backup plan is not a good thing.

There are twice as many eggs in the FF basket as are in the green basket,. So, the statement by the OP is false.

 

citing an issue with wind turbines while the weather also effected gas, doesn't make the issue with gas go away either

 

Nobody said it wasn't.

 

It's a 100 year storm. There will be technological improvements by the time the next one hits.

 

At least 4 dead, 150M people under winter advisories as 'unprecedented' storm stretches across 25 states; 4.3M without power in Texas
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...exas-power-outages-south-ice-snow/4487366001/

 

Indeed. But if climate change is wreaking havoc on ALL forms of power generation?

Meanwhile, what about a renewables transmission line from a S. American desert,... or an undersea cable from the Sahara, into the US grid (for emergency house heating only)?

 

Notwithstanding the environmental irony, coal fired plants aren't "backups" anyway. They aren't instant on and off. Takes time and planning to get them fired up and online. Coal plants were built and designed to continuously run, that is why they have planned major outages during reduced load seasons for maintenance, etc -- it costs a TON of money to bring them offline and then back online, plus it's hard on the equipment. Much more efficient to leave them running once they're on. For "backups", or to deal with peak loads due to unexpected heat or cold, gas plants are the best for that. Natural gas plants can quickly fire up and turn back off.

 

The wind turbines in the sea carried on working throughout the cold snap. Now, if only Texas had built more "windmills" in the sea this problem would not have arisen

 

A small, temporary problem is snow on solar panels. Huge, sometimes permanent problems are coal tilings and ash, nuclear waste and environmental destruction across the board from water, air and land pollution.

 

Gas, nuclear & coal, which make up two thirds of power in Texas, have also had serious issues with the cold snap. Instruments have frozen, wellheads have frozen and there have been issues with pipes. In addition, the grid has collapsed. Apparently there has been underinvestment in the grid for years, so its hardly a surprise.

What I love about this is that Texas has been run by Republicans for decades. The same people who just can't shut up about the failures of Democrats in California have talked about this disaster as if it has nothing to do with the political party that runs the state. Funny that. Easier to misrepresent the failure of 'green' power than talk about the party in power. I'm sure someone will find a way to blame Obama or AOC or Biden.

Making sure people get power & clean water is one of the fundamental roles of the state. If that doesn't happen it is the fault of the state one way or another.