Thought you’d be interested in this Linda, regarding the Big Texas Power fuck-up
We may not know the full definitive reason for a while, but a few things are clear:
- Obviously, Texas winters ain’t usually this cold. The state’s infrastructure is simply not prepared for a deep freeze.
- Critics of renewables will try to blame wind turbines, but experts note that wind makes up a small share of Texas’ energy consumption. It’s mostly dependent on coal and gas.
- It’s also worth pointing out that a lot of chillier places have wind turbines that don’t buckle in the cold — hello, Iowa; hej hej, Denmark — they just need to be winterized, a step experts said Texas has skipped.
- The Lone Star State is … all alone. Texas made a conscious decision to isolate its energy grid from the rest of the country. That means that when things are running smoothly, it can’t export excess power to neighboring states. And in the current crisis, it can’t import power either.
In other words: “When it comes to electricity, what happens in Texas stays in Texas,” said Dan Cohan, associate professor of environmental engineering at Rice University. “That has really come back to bite us.”
Time to think again Texas