Ok, we can agree to define “failure” as “failing to provide the expected amount of power”, regardless of how it’s commonly used in relation to “outage”.
These failures represent a small percentage of the coal/gas power grid. They can be absorbed by the system, one fails while the rest keep humming along. The issue comes when a large part of the grid is, for example, solar - where when they fail due to it being overcast, practically the entire solar grid fails. Or when there is no wind, none of the wind turbines turn.
So while the data may conveniently be able to equate a coal plant failing with the shortage of electricity at a given time, the solar grid was unable to pick up the slack because it was underperforming as well. Whereas had that solar money been put into more reliable coal plants, even after accounting for the failure rate, that additional coal capacity would’ve been able to maintain the grid until those failures were remedied.
In short, in terms of reliability, 1 MW from a solar panel is not equal to 1 MW from a coal plant. You may need 1.1MW coal capacity to ensure you get that 1MW (after accounting for failures), while you need 2-3MW of solar capacity to ensure you get that same 1MW.
(Yes, I know there is a ton of technicalities I’ve glossed over. This is just a general observation.)
Sure, but surely you can blame the team for paying 5’2" you millions of dollars to play against LaBron when that same money could’ve paid for a 7’ All Star instead…
Wind and solar didnt directly cause the problem, having chosen and invested in wind and solar over more reliable options is what caused the problem. No matter how much more coal/gas plants may produce, they wont be able to pick up the slack of a failure when all investment has gone towards solar, et al instead.
It’s kind of funny how, for the longest time, concern about reliable electric service was focused on delivery. We now seem to have solved the issue of an unreliable delivery grid simply by ensuring we dont have electricity to be delivered.
Wind and solar, in TX or anywhere else, are completely unreliable as energy sources. They are at best ancillary or auxiliary means of obtaining electric power. Any reliance on either as a primary source inevitably will fall short of first world standards. Hence:
Other power generation means must be capable, alone, of providing 100% of grid needs. Anything less and brownouts/blackouts are inevitable.
The current day focus on renewables by green warriors is asinine outside of the above context.
That is a fair post and we agree. ERCOT has taken its share of criticism and it all is well deserved in my view. They are idiots.
Texas and regions close are sitting on the largest reservoir of natural gas in the USA. Yet ERCOT has pursued this green BS. They are FUBAR, at least in my view. And Texans have already paid a high price for their folly. Even the Germans are smarter than this . . . . . at least they finally are now.
Pays owners $2/kWh, which is ~4-8x higher than it would cost to charge up from the grid during off-peak hours. A clever solution to the storage problem, however small in the grand scheme. Something like this would be good in other locations too, like TX, where the cost of electricity skyrockets during peak demand.
of course, the left-wing NBC News neglects to mention that it’s Manchin plus 50 Republicans
“We’re all going to die,” House Budget Committee Chairman John Yarmuth, D-Ky., told reporters when asked about the consequences of Congress failing to act.
Yarmuth’s remarks on Friday captured the cocktail of anger, frustration, resentment and powerlessness that many Democrats felt after Manchin, D-W.Va., took a one-man wrecking ball to what’s left of President Joe Biden’s agenda, dealing a heavy blow to their big policy ambitions and further complicating a tough midterm election landscape for the party.
From a national security perspective, this is a major, and increasingly direct threat — especially as we shift away from fossil fuels, with a larger chunk of our economy, and livelihoods, dependent on materials and components that China controls.
Protecting our environment and transitioning to clean technologies must be done, but we can’t ignore the tradeoffs. We are now moving from a world in which the United States was the top exporter of fossil fuels, at roughly 20% of the global supply, to a world in which China controls >75% of all the materials needed for nearly everything that defines modernity. No matter how badly some would like to ignore this basic fact of reality, someone has to mine, process, and manufacture the critical stuff with which we build and maintain human civilization, and we can’t just blindly offshore the responsibility to China — to whom we also cede the future. The world I want my children to live in is not just clean and beautiful, but free, and that is not a world controlled by the CCP.
Yeah, right. Which fair and balanced reporter followed up with “So Congressman BigYarmouth, if Congress acts, we all won’t die?” Is he self identifying as Jesus?
So? I mean, we deserve to be punished for being so productive over the last century+. What better way than this? Well, we could outlaw coal, natural gas, oil, plastics, petrochemicals and nuclear power. But that would would just be nuts. Instead, it’s better to tax or regulate those products in such a way that the government can get extra money and make the Chinese products seem like a cheaper alternative.
“This unchains the president from waiting to act. This frees up the president to use the full powers of the executive branch, and those full powers certainly include a climate emergency,” Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) said Monday after it became clear Democrats lacked the support to revive their economic agenda.
Biden vowed last week, after Manchin informed Democratic leaders of his opposition to more spending, to take “strong” executive action on climate change. Advocates are waiting to see whether he follows through.
Any executive action on climate is likely to face legal challenges brought forth by Republicans. The conservative 6-3 majority on the Supreme Court, for example, recently kneecapped the Environmental Protection Agency’s power to regulate greenhouse gases. Conservatives have signaled their intention to go even further by pushing the high court to gut the power of the administrative state entirely.
But Democrats warned that the consequences of not acting to address climate change were too great regardless of what the Supreme Court may decide to do down the line. They urged Biden to use the power of his office and let the chips fall where they may.
“We cannot sit still for fear of what the court might do,” Merkley said. “Let’s pursue every option, and if a few of them are struck down, they’re struck down, and we’ll double down on the rest.”
That photo is actually of Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse. He is indebted to Hawaii Senator Mazie Hirono, else he would be the kookiest member of the Senate. And regardless sweet Mazie, Sheldon is STILL a remarkable piece of work, a pluperfect liberal a’hole.
Doesn’t he look like the Senator who used to make “waitress sandwiches” with Killer Kennedy? I wonder why we didn’t hear claims against their estates during the metoo movement?