AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Anger over Texas' power grid failing in the face of a record winter freeze mounted Tuesday as millions of residents in the energy capital of the U.S. remained shivering with no assurances that their electricity and heat — out for 36 hours or longer in many homes — would return s
apnews.com
It is difficult finding well-researched articles on this topic. For example, one of the quotes in the article:
Ed Hirs, an energy fellow at the University of Houston, said the problem was a lack of weatherized power plants and a statewide energy market that doesn’t incentivize companies to generate electricity when demand is low. In Texas, demand peaks in August, at the height of the state’s sweltering summers.
He rejected that the storm went beyond what ERCOT could have anticipated.
“That’s nonsense. It’s not acceptable,” Hirs said. “Every eight to 10 years we have really bad winters. This is not a surprise.”
Sounds authoritative, until you search for Ed Hirs, and read that he's an economist, not a scientist or engineer in energy generation or distribution.
University of Houston - UH Energy, Energy Fellows Bio of Ed Hirs
uh.edu
Wind power is a mess, as far as I'm concerned. While the full lifecycle energy payback for wind turbines is estimated at about one calendar year for the studies I've seen, out of a 20 year average projected lifespan, the studies I've found do not seem to include recycling of turbine blades, which is looking to be an expensive and energy-consuming process that is in its infancy. Most blades at EOL are just buried in landfills. And blades are replaced at an average of ten years, not twenty years. So every turbine, on average needs two sets of blades. And then there are the dedicated transmission lines to odd locations required for wind power transmission, which are necessary for almost any wind power project. Add in the hundreds of square miles of pristine land defiled by turbine farms, the obnoxious noise wind turbines make, and that the power generation is unreliable and uncorrelated to energy demand, to say the least, I don't mind saying I despise wind power. It is a pox on the environment and a pox on the electrical grids. Wind power probably wouldn't exist in the grids at all if not for exorbitant subsidies from governments at multiple levels, and laws that require generation companies to buy the power.
To make matters worse, solar power makes wind power look really good.
There isn't modern civilization without reliable electricity. The priority zero requirement for the electrical grid should be reliability, not reducing carbon emissions.
