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Texas Senate passes bill aiming to counter federal subsidies for wind and solar

houstonchronicle.com

11–20 of 75 posts

Re: Texas Senate passes bill aiming to counter federal subsidies for wind and solar

#11
post #8

I understand that natural gas plants were just as impacted by the storm as renewables ( https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02/16/natural-gas-power-st... ) so it is not clear this bill is being passed in good faith

If they worry do much about storms wouldn't nuclear be the best option? Hydro is also pretty resilient.

At least one reactor had to be shut down as well, because the cooling tower froze.

Winterizing is the answer, no matter the power source.

Re: Texas Senate passes bill aiming to counter federal subsidies for wind and solar

#12
post #8

I understand that natural gas plants were just as impacted by the storm as renewables ( https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02/16/natural-gas-power-st... ) so it is not clear this bill is being passed in good faith

If they worry do much about storms wouldn't nuclear be the best option? Hydro is also pretty resilient.

That still leaves the grid to worry about. Even if the power plant doesn't have issue, if grid lines fail (temperature, wind, snow, ice,...) the power will still be lost. Nulear power plants have problems with freezing temperature (frozen rivers are bad to get cooling water from) and high temps / dry weather (again, low river levels are bad to get cooling water from.

That is obviously less of a problem in case nuclear power plants are build on the coast.

It is also worth to note, that other countries, Canada, Russia, Northern Europe, et... have nowhere near the problems Texas had.

Re: Texas Senate passes bill aiming to counter federal subsidies for wind and solar

#13
post #8

I understand that natural gas plants were just as impacted by the storm as renewables ( https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02/16/natural-gas-power-st... ) so it is not clear this bill is being passed in good faith

If they worry do much about storms wouldn't nuclear be the best option? Hydro is also pretty resilient.

I believe nuclear was also problematic during the storm.. As for hydro, Texas already has 23 dams, and it still only accounts for 1% .. I don't think they could build enough to make a dent.

Re: Texas Senate passes bill aiming to counter federal subsidies for wind and solar

#14
post #9
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wind being offline, while not majority, was a non-trivial amount, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08mwXICY4JM .

If the wind infrastructure can be weatherized to effectively prevent such a scenario from happening (which it's my understanding is the case), then the claim that wind is to blame is still an untrue allegation. The blame would lie with not weatherizing the equipment, not with wind.

It can't with current technology. Wind can handle cold but not storms. Wind is the hardest power source to protect against the elements.

Re: Texas Senate passes bill aiming to counter federal subsidies for wind and solar

#16
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they worry do much about storms wouldn't nuclear be the best option? Hydro is also pretty resilient.

That still leaves the grid to worry about. Even if the power plant doesn't have issue, if grid lines fail (temperature, wind, snow, ice,...) the power will still be lost. Nulear power plants have problems with freezing temperature (frozen rivers are bad to get cooling water from) and high temps / dry weather (again, low river levels are bad to get cooling water from. That is obviously less of a problem in case nuclea…

> It is also worth to note, that other countries, Canada, Russia, Northern Europe, et... have nowhere near the problems Texas had.

Well, of course. There was no problem of "it's cold". The problem was "it's colder than we expected". You don't prepare for things that don't happen.

This actually reminds me of a comment I saw on the topic of international shipping: "Slow is fine. Late is not." The goal isn't to arrive quickly, it's to arrive when you said you would get there. And analogously for the temperature.

Re: Texas Senate passes bill aiming to counter federal subsidies for wind and solar

#17
post #2

I was under the impression that the issues with their grid were not due to renewable energy sources.

I'm curious where you got that impression, since every article admitted that wind transmission being offline was part of the problem with capacity.

So where did you get that impression from?

Re: Texas Senate passes bill aiming to counter federal subsidies for wind and solar

#18

I understand that natural gas plants were just as impacted by the storm as renewables ( https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02/16/natural-gas-power-st... ) so it is not clear this bill is being passed in good faith

Yeah, the big problem is the death of coal power. Coal power plants can stockpile enough fuel to run for a good while no matter the weather. Natural gas power plants cannot; they rely on a continuous supply of gas, and it turns out that every part of the Texas natural gas supply chain is vulnerable to cold weather and power outages. Fixing this will be slow, incredibly expensive, probably increase CO2 emissions and decrease the cost-effectiveness of gas (because they need to rely on natural gas to compress and pump the gas rather than cheaper electricity from wind power that might not be there).

Re: Texas Senate passes bill aiming to counter federal subsidies for wind and solar

#19
post #2

I was under the impression that the issues with their grid were not due to renewable energy sources.

That is correct, but the issue that the Texas Senate is trying to solve is 'How to best protect the profits of their fossil fuel sponsors.'

In that sense, this is exactly the solution they need.

Re: Texas Senate passes bill aiming to counter federal subsidies for wind and solar

#20
This makes me wonder. Basic macroeconomics tells us that savings must be invested. If you do not invest your savings, unemployment will go up because people are cutting spending and since they are not investing they are also not creating new jobs.

Interest rates being lower than inflation are a signal that pressures people to stop saving because the savings = investments equation has been broken by a huge margin.

The obvious question is, do these people hate money? Why aren't they just investing? One answer for that could be that all investments they want to make are illegal. Low carbon energy is an obvious investment. If you ban that and then ban the next thing, then what are all those pension funds (and other retirement related savings) supposed to invest their money into?

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