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

houstonchronicle.com

71–75 of 75 posts

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

#71
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No you don't understand, the plant didn't trip. The nuclear plant's turbines were literally on the "roof" of the reactor complex completely in the open. Nuclear regulations only require the reactor itself to be enclosed and protected. No shit the turbines froze over. They ignored reports advising them to fully enclose the plant for years.

The turbines have superheated steam flowing into them directly from a source of practically unlimited heat. The only way for them to freeze over would be for the plant to have already shut down.

https://www.spglobal.com/platts/en/market-insights/latest-ne...

The feed water system for cooling water froze, and the plant had to be shutdown.

This is what happens when you don't plan your essential services to react to predictable extreme events.

That a nuclear plant can theoretically handle this sort of thing quite easily means nothing if you don't actually implement the systems to do so.

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

#72
post #71
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The turbines have superheated steam flowing into them directly from a source of practically unlimited heat. The only way for them to freeze over would be for the plant to have already shut down.

https://www.spglobal.com/platts/en/market-insights/latest-ne... The feed water system for cooling water froze, and the plant had to be shutdown. This is what happens when you don't plan your essential services to react to predictable extreme events. That a nuclear plant can theoretically handle this sort of thing quite easily means nothing if you don't actually implement the systems to do so.

> No you don't understand, the plant didn't trip.

> STPNOC said in an event report filed with NRC that the unit tripped at 5:26 am

The feed water system has nothing to do with the turbines, and the plant shut down as a safety precaution.

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

#73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They’re not semantics, my comment is about power and who is willing to wield it. Republicans will still vote for Republicans even when avoidable disasters happen. There are two choices, and they’re not going to give a shit that Democrats were slightly less bad on the subject.

So you’re saying it does not cost political capital to be responsible for policies that caused a disaster? Where’s the good faith in this discussion or the people who suffered the disaster?

It doesn’t truly cost, no. What was the cost to the Iraq war, or the deregulation of Wall Street in the 90s? The public has a short memory, and few choices.

I don’t have to agree with this in order to recognize it.

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

#74
post #72
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.spglobal.com/platts/en/market-insights/latest-ne... The feed water system for cooling water froze, and the plant had to be shutdown. This is what happens when you don't plan your essential services to react to predictable extreme events. That a nuclear plant can theoretically handle this sort of thing quite easily means nothing if you don't actually implement the systems to do so.

> No you don't understand, the plant didn't trip. > STPNOC said in an event report filed with NRC that the unit tripped at 5:26 am The feed water system has nothing to do with the turbines, and the plant shut down as a safety precaution.

Loss of cooling water to the condencer is bad news for any thermal power plant. It can lead to damage to the LP turbine through poor steam quality.

I was perhaps a bit too hasty in my initial statement, clearly this reactor tripped because of the cold. I'm not an expert but given a nuclear power plant produces literally gigawatts of low grade waste heat it feels like that should have been possible to work around i.e. for example by bleeding cooling water back at the intake.

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

#75
post #49
post #45

It'd be interesting to see Texas tax deployments of wind and solar within the state but incentivize manufacturing of wind and solar. If oil and gas exports from Texas are going to decline in coming years, having wind and solar exports increase would be a nice logical offset. And even if oil/gas exports don't decline it does seem like manufacturing of wind/solar products will only increase so it would be seemingly low…

The crazy thing is texas has among the best wind conditions in the country, and is also the center of structural steel.

It’s not about logic, it’s about entrenched interests and deeply engrained belief systems of those in power.

This is not crazy. The system is doing exactly as one would expect based on how it’s structured.

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