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Officials say situation in texas is disastrous, as some 3 million homes and businesses remain without electricity following a record storm. While some of the coldest temperatures in decades have hit the Lone Star State, many have blamed an unusual source: wind turbines.
While the state power grid can withstand its extremely hot summers, it is not as prepared for the harsh winter conditions – extreme which should only get worse the climate crisis is intensifying. Frozen wind turbines across the state have led some conservative politicians to state that renewable energy is responsible for catastrophic power outages and power outages.
“This is what happens when you force the grid to rely partly on the wind for power,” Republican MP Dan Crenshaw said. tweeted Tuesday. “When the weather conditions get worse like this week, intermittent renewable energy like the wind isn’t there when you need it.
“We should never build another wind turbine in Texas,” Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller wrote on Facebook. “The experiment failed enormously.”
Texas Governor Greg Abbott echoed this sentiment and took the opportunity to criticize the Green New Deal.
“It shows how the Green New Deal would be a deadly deal for the United States of America,” Abbott mentionned to Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Tuesday. “Our wind turbine and solar were shut down, and they collectively made up over 10% of our electricity grid, and that put Texas in a state of statewide power shortage.”
But the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which supplies about 90% of the state with electricity, said on Tuesday that wind power was responsible for only a fraction of the losses. Of the 45,000 megawatts of electricity offline during the peak period, 30,000 megawatts came from natural gas, while 16,000 megawatts came from wind turbines.
“Of the power shortage that hit Texas, more than 80% was due to problems at coal and gas power plants,” PolitiFact reported.
Experts say traditional energy sources, including coal and natural gas, have performed below expectations, while wind power has actually exceeded expectations.
“The main story remains the failure of thermal power plants – natural gas, coal and nuclear power plants – that ERCOT relies on to be there when needed. They have failed,” Jesse Jenkins, professor of engineering at Princeton tweeted Tuesday. “Those of you who have heard that frozen wind turbines are to blame for this, think again. Extreme demand and thermal power plant failures are the main cause.”
Supporters of renewable energy blasted state officials for blaming the problem solely on the turbines.
“It is shameful to see the longtime antagonists of clean power – who attack it rain, snow or shine – engaging in a politically opportunistic masquerade deceiving Americans into promoting an agenda that has nothing to do with restoring power to Texan communities Heather Zichal, CEO of the American Clean Power Association, said in a statement Tuesday, “This is an extreme weather problem, not a clean energy problem. If anything, it shows why we need to invest in building more renewable energy sources with better transmission and better storage to replace obsolete systems. ”
ERCOT and Energy analysts say natural gas, which supplies just over a third of Texas’ electricity and heats about 40% of its homes, is the main culprit behind the blackouts.
“By far the biggest blackouts come from our natural gas plants,” Daniel Cohan, associate professor of environmental engineering at Rice University, told CBS MoneyWatch reporter Irina Ivanova. “Some were out of order for scheduled maintenance. Others were not designed to perform reliably in extremely cold weather, and others were unable to get enough natural gas.”
“It appears that a large part of the generation that has been disconnected today is mainly due to problems with the natural gas system,” Dan Woodfin, senior director of ERCOT, told reporters.
Abbott also acknowledged this, contrary to his comments on Fox News. “The capacity of some companies that produce electricity has been frozen. This includes natural gas and coal generators,” he said. tweeted Monday.
Also, there are anti-icing methods available to keep wind turbines operating in freezing temperatures, but Texas has not invested in them due to the rarity of extreme cold.
“Iowa and Denmark get a greater percentage of their wind power than we do. There are ways to winterize a lot of these power providers, but it costs money and it takes energy. and maintenance, ”Cohan said. “In Texas and the South, we’ve become more focused on keeping our lights on in the summer.”
ERCOT said it had prepared for winter storms – but even their most extreme forecasts were overtaken by inclement weather this week and demand for electricity skyrocketed. Almost all power sources failed during the storm, according to the US Department of Energy.
Texas is the only state in the continental United States that has its own separate power grid – it is unregulated by the federal government and is disconnected from neighboring states. On Tuesday, Abbott ordered an investigation into ERCOT.
“The Texas Electrical Reliability Council has been anything but reliable for the past 48 hours. Far too many Texans are without power and heat for their homes,” he said in a statement. declaration. “This is unacceptable.”
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