[txrefugee]

Uh...do the Germans not know that windmills don’t produce electricity in cold weather? Texas learned that in Jan. and Feb. 2010. We wound up paying through the nose for Mexican electricity to keep the heat on.

[thackney]

do the Germans not know that windmills don’t produce electricity in cold weather?

Not true. There are wind turbine generators north of the Arctic circle and in Antarctica.

[KarlInOhio]

Do they not produce electricity in general or does the wind not blow in Texas in the winter?

[thackney]

don’t produce electricity in cold weather? Texas learned that in Jan. and Feb. 2010.

Are you thinking of the rolling blackouts in Jan-Feb 2011? I was don't recall them in 2010 and do not find them listed in the ERCOT archives.

http://www.ercot.com/news/press_releases/2011

http://www.ercot.com/news/press_releases/2010

Note that the primary cause of the 2011 outages were due to coal plants having water pipes burst and Natural Gas plants have restricted fuel supply due to high demand. Over 50 power plants were effected at that time.

[ken in texas]

Texas learned that in Jan. and Feb. 2010.

I'm no friend of wind power but that had nothing to do with the 2010 problems. Some plants had been taken down for routine maintenanace, then we had an unexpected and severe cold spell that caused problems for many of the plants that remained on-line.