Everyone driving electric cars----------what a joke.

Might want to check your talking points: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/02...rozen-wind-farms-are-just-small-piece-puzzle/

As to where the power will come from, as technology improves homes will have home energy storage devices that can feed back into the grid, we would probably be seeing fewer people dying from CO2 by trying to run generators, ovens, and their vehicles to warm their home. Very few people are ignorant enough to believe we can shut off the less green sources of power until we have a sufficient system in place, but it is a fun fairy tale the rabid right loves to obsess over.

Also, Texas’s power grid is divided from the rest of the nation — some of this would have been prevented were they part of the national grid but they have to pull the “we don’t need others” and have decided to do it alone (minus begging for federal aid of course).

 

Gee and rest of us thought that AGW was a product of the agreed upon science that emulates from every accredited university in the world.....every major industry and every department of all the governments of the free world.

So, tell is again why you’re right and all the smart people are wrong.

 

The deniers are counting on the snow still being there in August to buttress their feeble arguments.

 

Sure, they’ll be snow covered through august.

 

Horses weren't replaced. You can ride them on any non-highway public road without any sort of registration.

Cars suck. Get a horse haha.

 

Depends how you calculate cost.
Factor in environmental damage and climate consequences and coal is the most expensive fuel you can use.

 

Just to bolster your point...

 

They couldn't fire the coal powered generators because the coal was snow covered and frozen together on the ground. The gas powered generators evidently had liquid condensation frozen in the gas lines preventing it from reaching the generators. Bottom line is they were totally unprepared for the weather conditions that nature has brought them.

 

I live in the country also and occasionally get power outages also. Generally, it is because of tree falling on a line. They trim the trees back but with all the lines in the forests, but it is not perfect. When it comes down to it, they tend to repair lines required to get the service back for thousands as opposed to a few hundred.

One problem with solar and wind power, which I have talked about repeatedly is that neither is reliable and back up is required. That backup requires those plants to be on standby continuously with all the accompanying expense.

 

Today's average electric vehicle has a full-charge range of ~250 miles. If roads are iced for 3-4 days there would be no problem taking care of essentials.

Solar panels should have deicing capabilities.

Wind turbines are typically designed, per international standards for turbine design, to operate within ambient air temperatures of –10C while operational and –20C at standstill.

I suggest if you had more solar/wind energy within your power grids you would actually have less rolling black outs.

In Texas, 66% of the power is generated by gas and coal, therefore, 66% of your rolling black outs were rooted in gas and coal issues...

 

Guess what? Solar energy is cheaper than coal:
https://www.pv-magazine.com/2020/10...r, new, unsubsidized,to $23/MWh, respectively.

Now you can make fun of cars during a flood - kayaks are better and cheaper than cars!

 

I'm unwilling to accept the excuse of the one in a 50 year storm that is the failure we have been warning about for the last decade.

When we were subsidizing green energy, shutting down nuclear and oil/coal generating stations, often it was brought up that deficiencies with these renewable sources existed. That we shouldn't make a hasty transition away from reliable sources.

Here we are. No excuses. The climate agenda can not and should not fly in the face of simple logic like redundancy and capacity of life safety systems even during storms.

 

You really don't know how it works, do you. You really think "green power" can somehow be directed to a home which is singled-out for such treatment. Egad.

 

Is there a point in there somewhere? I was addressing subsidies, not your preference in energy production.

 

Can you provide a source for real costs i.e., factoring in government subsidies. When will the tax payer have to stop subsidizing this renewable energy? Also, as noted in the article below and illustrated by the current situation, backup power has to be factored into costs and it never is.
https://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/renewable/wind-and-solar-tax-credits/

 

Do you realize that electricity costs more in Europe? Is doubling electric bills that many people have difficulty paying now your definition of success?
http://euanmearns.com/the-causes-of...uropean-and-us-residential-electricity-rates/

 

I am not commenting on the relative cost of the technologies. I am simply pointing out to the op that the problems he identified, "windmills freezing up and solar panels covered in snow" is not a technology issue but a logistic one. Windmills work fine in Denmark, Germany and Scotland where the temperatures are much colder and they get more snow than Texas. If he was complaining about the high cost of green energies it would be a totally different discussion.

 

'why aren't the wind turbines in colorado, norway, and canada iced up? the blackouts in texas probably have more to do with monopoly capitalism than they do with windmills.

 

I'm still a believer in "clean" energy but it clearly looks like this technology is not ready to completely overcome fossil fuels as a main source

 

Bust? NO! We MUST.

Replace bust with must. Why? We are polluting our air with gas burning vehicles.

Where can we get the energy?

As our capacity for innovation grows, someone will figure out better solar cells, better batteries, and such.

But, the sun reigns energy on us every second, and those who can figure out who to harness that energy better will be tommorrow's billionaires. However, for now, it's efficient batteries for EVs and great strides have been made. I drive a Prius, and, at first I thought it would be too small of a car, as I've always driven sedans. But, not at all. Small is a Toyota Corolla, the Prius is very comfortable, and rides very smooth and.......it is so quiet! Get better gas mileage in the city than on the freeway, and 50 mpg! What I really want is a Tesla. Maybe in a few years, when the price comes down.

Now, I realize the juice for your EV comes often comes from a coal fired power plant, but that being said, there is still less pollution in the aggregate with electric cars than with gas burning cars.

As for power plant utilities, such as the Tennessee Valley Authority, it has announced that it will shutter 18 boilers and retrofit other plants to decrease emissions. To replace the electric capacity, it’s considering renewable energy, natural gas, nuclear power, and energy efficiency.

But, if we don't clean the air, we are doomed.

Replace bust with MUST.

Green is keen!

https://www.audubon.org/magazine/september-october-2011/green-guru-do-electric-cars-really

Are their problems, are EVs the perfect solution? No, but innovation, progress, is the solution. We're not there yet, but we are making progress. We MUST clean the air.

 

While I certainly was not around for when horses were phased out....I do recall when rotary's were phased out. I don't recall the government demanding that they be phased out and I don't recall anyone actually caring that they were phased out. This is not to say that there weren't those that complained. Old folks tend to hate new fangled tech. But there is a difference between things being naturally phased out and things being forced to phase out. Wouldn't you say?

Now, as to the thread topic...

Green tech is not the end of the world. In fact this storm in the southern states is actually a good thing to happen right at this point in time. Think about it. What would you and people in general rather have?

Rolling blackouts caused during the beginning of rolling out green energy and fossil fuels are still being used?

or..

Rolling blackouts when green energy is the norm and fossil fuels are not being used to heat houses and power cars?

With one you have time to adjust how things are made and take into account something that you weren't previously thinking about. While it may cause disruption, but it isn't too bad.

With the other you have no fossil fuels as a back up and you're scrambling to figure out how to get things fixed and running. The disruption will be massive.

I've said before that I work in an answering service and Monday night, Tuesday morning we were getting tons of calls of people calling off of work because they couldn't get to work. At the same time we were getting calls for furnace repairs in those same areas. Not one single one was an electric furnace. It was all gas furnaces. So, a lot of people are still able to stay warm right now because we're still at the beginning stages of getting green energy to work. If this storm had happened when we were not using fossil fuels more people would have been freezing. But since it happened when it did we will be able to think of a way to mitigate such things later on down the road.

As an addendum: There is more to green energy than just windmills and solar panels. There is also hydro-electricity (IE Dams). And they are even trying to figure out how to use the ocean to produce electricity. There is no shortage of types of green energy that we can use. It's just figuring out how to use them all and in conjunction with each other.

 

Um... well... Yes. Actually you can, and do. https://www.greenmountainenergy.com/texas/ And when they go off line, the providers are having to buy excess from other providers. Which, right now, there isn't much. So, try doing some research first...

 

Likely because those folks chose to install the de-icing infra for them. I get it. it's texas. These kinds of weather events normally never happen here. This is historic for here. It means folks didn't anticipate having to ever deal with this kind of weather, and of course, it has now happened. It remains to be seen if the providers will now invest the money in de-icing technologies for future events like this.

 

Ya I noticed that..

 

The problem is when this type of situation occurs, it does not just occur in a small area. It can affect half the states in the US and they can all end up being short of the needed electricity. They may not have the excess electricity to share.

In short, there is a higher demand for electricity while at the same time the supply becomes less. Other surrounding states do not necessarily have the power to share.

The once in fifty years part is misleading. It might be a hundred years between events or it may be a just a couple of years. Mother Nature does not work on a schedule. Also, weather tends to work in patterns. Once a pattern is established, they tend to repeat.

This will become a bigger problem as we go "Green" and will not necessarily be just a winter problem.