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Claim: Wind power failure ‘not main culprit’ in Texas blackouts – Reality check: Oh yes it was

Rebuttals: 

Texas Congressman Dan Crenshaw on frozen wind power: ‘Bottom line: fossil fuels are the only thing that saved us’ – ‘If we were even *more* reliant on the wind turbines that froze, the outages would have been much worse’

What Happened In Texas: ‘Wind energy scored an F’ – ‘The only energy source to perform so poorly during the power outages’

Nuclear scored the highest grade of an A, followed by natural gas and coal with C’s. Solar was the only renewable energy source to score higher than an F with a grade of a D, while hydro and wind scored F’s.

Texas gets electricity from six sources: coal, nuclear, natural gas, solar, hydro and wind…Some natural gas pipelines froze, contributing to the blackout. However: “Remarkably, natural gas still generated electricity at 38 percent of its total capacity throughout the energy emergency – providing on average over 65 percent of all electricity generation through Monday and Tuesday – despite roughly 30 GW being inoperable due to frozen pipelines holding up fuel.”

It was the “green” energy sources that failed to show up for work: “The three worst-performing generating assets, on the other hand, belonged exclusively to renewable energy sources: solar, hydro, and wind. Had Texas been even more reliant on these energy sources, as renewable energy advocates around the country desire, the energy crisis in Texas would have been even worse.”

Solar was irrelevant, and wind virtually irrelevant. – “You can rightfully label wind energy as the most unreliable energy source during the Texas energy crisis.” As such, you can rightfully label wind energy as the most unreliable energy source during the Texas energy crisis. While it may not have been the primary cause of the power outages, it certainly wouldn’t have done Texas any good to have more wind capacity on the system. In fact, more wind capacity would have only made things worse.

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Texas Freeze In Blackouts, As Wind Farms Fail: Paul Homewood:

Wind power now supplies about a quarter of Texas’s electricity, more than double the figure five years ago:

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https://eu.statesman.com/story/news/2021/02/14/historic-winter-storm-freezes-texas-wind-turbines-hampering-electric-generation/4483230001/

Fortunately, Texas can still get most of its electricity from reliable sources:

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https://www.eia.gov/state/?sid=TX#tabs-4

However, six coal fired power stations, totalling 3.9 GW, have closed in the last three years. Two more are scheduled to shut in the next few years. With these still on line, these blackouts could easily have been averted. Heaven help America if Biden gets his wish and shuts down fossil fuel. Meanwhile, the ironically named Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), who seem surprised that it gets cold in winter, have told customers to set ceiling fans to the winter setting by running them clockwise, to pull the warm air down.

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https://twitter.com/FamedCelebrity/status/1362149708467105792

https://twitter.com/JunkScience/status/1361875126141222917

 

https://www.wsj.com/articles/texas-spins-into-the-wind-11613605698?reflink=desktopwebshare_twitter

By The Editorial Board

While millions of Texans remain without power for a third day, the wind industry and its advocates are spinning a fable that gas, coal and nuclear plants—not their frozen turbines—are to blame. PolitiFact proclaims “Natural gas, not wind turbines, main driver of Texas power shortage.” Climate-change conformity is hard for the media to resist, but we don’t mind. So here are the facts to cut through the spin.

Texas energy regulators were already warning of rolling blackouts late last week as temperatures in western Texas plunged into the 20s, causing wind turbines to freeze. Natural gas and coal-fired plants ramped up to cover the wind power shortfall as demand for electricity increased with falling temperatures.

Some readers have questioned our reporting Wednesday (“The Political Making of a Texas Power Outage”) that wind’s share of electricity generation in Texas plunged to 8% from 42%. How can that be, they wonder, when the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (Ercot) has reported that it counts on wind to meet only 10% of its winter capacity.

Ercot’s disclosure is slippery. Start with the term “capacity,” which means potential maximum output. This is different than actual power generation. Texas has a total winter capacity of about 83,000 megawatts (MW) including all power sources. Total power demand and generation, however, at their peak are usually only around 57,000 MW. Regulators build slack into the system.

Texas has about 30,000 MW of wind capacity, but winds aren’t constant or predictable. Winds this past month have generated between about 600 and 22,500 MW. Regulators don’t count on wind to provide much more than 10% or so of the grid’s total capacity since they can’t command turbines to increase power like they can coal and gas plants.

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Physicist John Droz, Jr. analysis:
Tucker Carlson did a fine segment on the stupidity of wind.
Make SURE that you watch the short video in the article, which is superb!
My only beef is that Tucker repeatedly called industrial wind projects “wind farms.” There is nothing being farmed, other than subsidies. The lobbyists purposefully coined the phrase “wind farm” to deceive non-aware citizens into thinking an industrial wind project is pastoral and environmentally benign.
Both are false, as industrial wind projects are environmentally destructive. (E.g. see here.)
They are also typically a net economic liability to host communities. (E.g. see here.)
Further, industrial wind facilities are a net burden on the electric grid — the backbone of our modern society (and the Texas situation is one of numerous examples).
Stunningly, this is actually a desirable consequence for those pushing wind, as their real objective is to undermine our way of life. (E.g. carefully read Bill McKibben, the journalist — not scientist — who is the leader of the environmental movement.)
Lastly, there is zero genuine scientific proof that wind turbines are of any consequential benefit regarding climate change. In fact there is substantial evidence that they are a climate detriment! (E.g. see here.)
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Via CFACT:

As The Wall Street Journal reports:

“While millions of Texans remain without power for a third day, the wind industry and its advocates are spinning a fable that gas, coal and nuclear plants—not their frozen turbines—are to blame.

After imperiling the grid with their wind turbines and solar panels, Big Green is gleefully distributing talking points to the press about natural gas plants failing to keep up with demand.”

Holman Jenkins tells us why in another article at the WSJ:

“Thanks to the Clean Air Act, pipeline compressors run on electricity now rather than natural gas. So blackouts meant to conserve electricity can actually reduce it, by knocking gas-burning generators offline.“

Tracing energy problems to their source always leads back to bad Green policy.

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