Texas has been cutting back on building gas and coal power capacity, because of their heavy reliance on wind. During this summer’s heatwave, there has been almost no wind – and they are almost out of electricity to run their air conditioners.
October 8, 2009
Texas Wind Boom Cutting into Fossil Generator Profits
By Chris HollyCan wind turbines actually reduce the amount of fossil fuels consumed? A Wall Street Journal analysis concludes that ERCOT utilities will begin to feel the squeeze in their profits this year and to expect the amount of fossil fuels used to generate electricity to be reduced.
August 3, 2011
The Texas electric grid managers said Tuesday that power demand reached a record level for a second consecutive day as much of the state saw record heat.
Extreme heat was keeping much of Texas on a razor-thin margin between sufficient electric power to keep Texans cool and an energy shortage that could mean rolling electric service interruptions, said Kent Saathoff, ERCOT vice president of system planning and operations.
http://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/KATT/2011/7/5/MonthlyHistory.html
Too bad no one could EVER have guessed solar power in as cold and cloudy a state as Texas. My iPhone app hasn’t had the high temp in dallas go below 104 in about 2 weeks. I check it periodically to remind me that it is not really hot here in the Northeast.
They like to do the solar power on public buildings in the Seattle area. Never cloudy there.
too bad you have dems in control of the cold rainy parts and repubs in control of the hot sunny parts.
Those d.a.’s are reaping what they’ve sown. Sadly, the people of Texas are suffering from other people’s poor decisions. Just wait until the bills go out…….. should be early next week.
This video might be of interest to you all discussing the pros/cons of Texas wind…
http://earththeoperatorsmanual.com/segment/10
My mate once told me he went to Houston and they had air con blowers at tables outside to stop ice cream melting. Now I do not know if this is true or not but if it is then I can only say that if Americans want to be so pampered they need to use electricity to stop their icecreams melting than they need to rationalise how much they use, not the generation method.
Andy
Andy, I can’t say that it isn’t true, but I’ve been to Houston several times and have never seen anything like that. But, if in a tourist part of town….. who knows.
That stated, there isn’t any reason why we should even have to consider how much electricity they use. It should be boundless, and it should be very cheap. The fact is, air con inside or out, whirly gigs can’t reliably produce enough electric. Further, the expense isn’t justified.
It is illogical to argue that Texas is using too much electricity, when they never had before,……. until they planted the pinwheels. If they had constructed coal or gas plants, there would be no discussion as to generation capabilities.
Thank God we’ve evolved enough to have that….
We need cheaper energy and more of it…..
…anything else is going backward
Yep. I don’t know why this is a hard concept for some.
If some particular restaurant can afford to have air conditioning for outdoor patrons I don’t see where anyone would have the authority to tell them not to such a thing.
Justa-Joe:
Why not air conditioning in your backyard? Or in the park?
How about some air conditioning and a whole lot of sprinklers in this part of Texas?
http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/Aj9tjfrCuJaw7L1q706DOw–/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9aW5zZXQ7aD00MTU7cT04NTt3PTYzMA–/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/ap_webfeeds/f172101c5196d611f40e6a7067001101.jpg
Blow,
How about snow in the desert?
http://www.skidxb.com/home/about-ski-dubai/virtual-tours.aspx
I remember in the late 60’s or early 70’s hearing that Kuwait was considering air conditioning the outdoors.
Never looked it up to find the context. But it had to do with the fact that they were awash in petrocash and needed something to spend it on I guess.
As a Californian who lived through the Texan market manipulated rolling blackouts, and still suffers under the Enron inspired global warming act of 2006, I just have to say “ha haa”.
You managed to T-Bone yourselves in the ass. Heh No mean feat, and yet how often you manage to pull it off.