Posted on 02/18/2021 10:23:05 PM PST by Vendome
But...but...Unicorn Farts was gonna power everything!!! The greens (on the outside, red in) promised us this was gonna be wonderful!
On the other hand, there is significant data pointing to the earth being in a solar minimum as sun spots numbers have hit a record low. If we had real science in this country that was able to advise freely without fear of cancellation, governments could be preparing their states to handle a period of colder winters.
https://science.nasa.gov/science-news/news-articles/solar-minimum-is-coming
All you say is true BUT to put 92% of your electrical dependency on only renewable ( wind / solar ) is not smart.
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Who did that?
Real-time ERCOT data
http://www.ercot.com/content/cdr/html/real_time_system_conditions.html
We in Texas had better get LEADERS(?) to look at the solar min, weather pattern prediction, and rich idiots planning to block out more heat to “save the planet” lest the next time will be much MUCH worse.
ERCOT shut us off twice for about 4 hours at a time in this event(30 miles from Bay City’s nuclear plant and a lot of industrial co-gen) so we ran the HURRICANE generator to keep critical things running. We’re on co-op power and not the variable rate nightmare billing some people will see soon when they share paying for $9,000/mWhr wholesale pricing during the peak shortfall times.
A nuke plant tripped because the cooling pump froze. As did at least one coal plant.
Nothing was hardened for cold weather. From the power plants to the water supply, to the sewer, to the houses nothing was hardened to survive cold weather.
The billion dollar question is do you build for the 50 year events or not? For me, and what I have input on in Texas, we will try to implement cold weather standards company wide. If we keep the plants, which after all the freeze damage may not happen.
John Ringo wrote an excellent book called “The Last Centurion”. Takes places, well about now and the big theme is a pandemic during a solar minimum.
The science is pretty spot on.
If we are going into a minimum, we will see famine in the Western World again.
The growing season in the Midwest is shrinking a bit. Not a huge deal, but yields will not be optimum. But at some point, you decrease to the point you are screwed.
I worked for TXU in insulation (IT side) in the early 1990’s. Back then it was the same as it is now, that that was right after the 1989 incident (people forget too about 1983).
We’ve closed so many lignite plants since then, and it’s moronic to burn natural gas for electricity. We have more coal than we can use. We need to use it.
Oh I agree, but you have to build your cooling, water, and other infrastructure to survive the cold.
If you lose your tower, it doesn’t matter what the boiler is running. And the nukes lost their cooling pump
My point is that a coal fired boiler is as vurnable to freezing temps as nat gas. My towers up here are set up to run in the cold. The plants south of OKC are not. We lost a furnace because the water jacket is not able to be drained, and the power was dropped.
Absolutely, but we closed dozens of lignite plant and sometimes redundancy can save you from cost cutting... of course it’s hard to keep a plant idle.
Oh I agree.
When windpower first started, the old boiler runners said “I can’t take a boiler off and hope the wind keeps blowing”.
This was in the early 2000’s, and it looks like they lost. They took boilers and out, and counted on the wind.
They replaced NG powered pumps on the natural gas pipeline with electric.
All that works, till it doesn’t. Kind of like building a dream home on a barrier island. Works great, till a hurricane comes and washes it away
Houston
While CenterPoint Energy maintains the Houston area electricity infrastructure, dozens of retail electricity providers compete for your business. Retailers purchase wholesale electricity from power generators and sell it to residential and business customers. When you’re a Texan living in the state’s deregulated electricity market, you have the power to choose your electricity company.
Well, that may be, but that system has you sitting with out power right now, in the cold. Not saying that deregulation is a bad thing, but wind and solar are not reliable energy sources.
On the other hand, growing in fabric tunnels and glass houses can amplify sunlight even on cloudy days. We lived in the Netherlands for awhile and they grew a majority of their vegetables in greenhouses. There are also techniques like the hot bed, that can speed plant growth in the spring so as to maximize the cooler summer. While the modern types of wheat used for our flour today will have a difficult time in the cooler weather, original grains can do well at that temperatures.
The books sounds interesting! I will definitely check it out. Thanks!
Don’t forget the panthers, invasive pythons, gators and hurricanes that De Santis is unleashing on his hapless populace! /sarc
Well, that may be, but that system has you sitting with out power right now, in the cold
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Not me, haven’t missed a minute of power. No outages, cut backs, etc. Life going on as usual within the norms of this pandemic.
I walked around in ski pants the whole damn time
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