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Texas electricity maximum renewables record

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Re: Texas electricity maximum renewables record

#31

Post by eldaisfish »

drob518 wrote: post #5
toomuchtodo wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.congress.gov/118/meeting/house/116690/documents/... https://www.npr.org/sections/live-updates-winter-storms-2021... https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/17/climate/texas-blackouts-d... | https://archive.today/FOUK8 https://www.ucs.org/resources/gas-malfunction Edit: On base load generation: https://www.google.com/search?q=base+load+myth

Even if you ignore grid failures, the fact is that power output from renewables drops during the winter. That’s just a fact. That drop must be made up by other things (natural gas, nuclear, or coal, in Texas, very little hydro). I’m all for more renewables, but we need a lot more nuclear that can be dialed up to compensate for renewables going offline during certain weather conditions.

i get what you're saying but renewable capacity does not drop during the winter. On the contrary, winter months outside the tropics have higher wind speeds.

Solar output drops during the winter, not wind.

that said, economics pose a major problem to building more renewable energy capacity. No one will build a wind farm if it is not profitable. Profitability is a major question if average electricity prices drop.

Re: Texas electricity maximum renewables record

#32

Post by lowwave »

hk1337 wrote: post #10

https://www.ercot.com/gridmktinfo/dashboards

Getting this on the link and their homepage. Maybe AI bot blocking? Normal NON Tor or VPN.

If you believe you have a valid business reason for accessing ERCOT resources, please contact the ERCOT Service Desk at ServiceDesk@ercot.com.

Re: Texas electricity maximum renewables record

#33

Post by drob518 »

magicalist wrote: post #24
hk1337 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was one major occurrence with freak weather conditions and unpreparedness for something that _rarely_, if ever, occurs in Texas every 100 years.

> It was one major occurrence with freak weather conditions and unpreparedness for something that _rarely_, if ever, occurs in Texas every 100 years. it happened in 2011, too, and all the warnings and published recommendations as a result of that storm weren't acted upon.

Yep, and natural gas was the big culprit in 2011, too. Valves froze, IIRC. But again, you couldn’t dial up solar and wind to compensate, so we had rolling blackouts.

Re: Texas electricity maximum renewables record

#34

Post by chasd00 »

kbaker wrote: post #6

Today is definitely sunny and windy. With power prices negative, I guess those big Bitcoin mines out in West TX are quite profitable burning off our excess power...

El Paso aside, the only place in West Texas I can think of that may have a datacenter is Sul Ross University in Alpine but i doubt it. ..there's probably not even one in El Paso.

Re: Texas electricity maximum renewables record

#35

Post by martinpw »

drob518 wrote: post #5
toomuchtodo wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.congress.gov/118/meeting/house/116690/documents/... https://www.npr.org/sections/live-updates-winter-storms-2021... https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/17/climate/texas-blackouts-d... | https://archive.today/FOUK8 https://www.ucs.org/resources/gas-malfunction Edit: On base load generation: https://www.google.com/search?q=base+load+myth

Even if you ignore grid failures, the fact is that power output from renewables drops during the winter. That’s just a fact. That drop must be made up by other things (natural gas, nuclear, or coal, in Texas, very little hydro). I’m all for more renewables, but we need a lot more nuclear that can be dialed up to compensate for renewables going offline during certain weather conditions.

> we need a lot more nuclear that can be dialed up to compensate for renewables going offline during certain weather conditions

If you want something to compensate for intermittency, nuclear seems like the worst option. It implies you have nuclear plants sitting offline until needed, or being ramped up and down. My understanding is that you really want to run nuclear plants 24/7 at full output.

Re: Texas electricity maximum renewables record

#36

Post by drob518 »

thrance wrote: post #30
drob518 wrote: post #3

Now, if only it was reliable in the winter…

Why are we wasting so much time on this website needing to debunk every reheated conservative talking points? What is the moderation doing?

I’m not sure why discussing the very real issues with renewable power is a “conservative talking point.” Why is everything assumed to be politically motivated. Everyone assume I’m throwing renewables under the bus for the 2021 grid failure. I’m not. Everything failed in 2021. Gas failed. And renewables couldn’t pick up the slack because renewable generation always slumps in the winter.

Re: Texas electricity maximum renewables record

#37

Post by forty »

lowwave wrote: post #32
hk1337 wrote: post #10

https://www.ercot.com/gridmktinfo/dashboards

Getting this on the link and their homepage. Maybe AI bot blocking? Normal NON Tor or VPN. If you believe you have a valid business reason for accessing ERCOT resources, please contact the ERCOT Service Desk at ServiceDesk@ercot.com.

Same from clean residential IP. They must assume a DDOS attack with the HN crowd suddenly clicking on that link ^^

Re: Texas electricity maximum renewables record

#38

Post by drob518 »

eldaisfish wrote: post #31
drob518 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if you ignore grid failures, the fact is that power output from renewables drops during the winter. That’s just a fact. That drop must be made up by other things (natural gas, nuclear, or coal, in Texas, very little hydro). I’m all for more renewables, but we need a lot more nuclear that can be dialed up to compensate for renewables going offline during certain weather conditions.

i get what you're saying but renewable capacity does not drop during the winter. On the contrary, winter months outside the tropics have higher wind speeds. Solar output drops during the winter, not wind. that said, economics pose a major problem to building more renewable energy capacity. No one will build a wind farm if it is not profitable. Profitability is a major question if average electricity prices drop.

Well, it depends on the geography. I’d have to look at output for west Texas and the panhandle. But yea, wind doesn’t necessarily go down. But solar does if for no other reason than angle of incidence in the winter.
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