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Texas sets single-day wind power record
- nawitus 11y agoNot strictly related to wind power in Texas, but reminded me how at the same time in Finland a few authorities recommended consumers to actually limit their use of eletricity "for the common good". The main cause was increase in wind power capacity in the last few years (as there was practically no wind that day), coupled with very low temperatures and problems with buying electricity from Russia. It's kinda scary how a developed, modern country is suddenly close to rationing the use of electricity.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- toomuchtodo 11y agoYou don't have to limit your power "for the common good" (not that there's anything wrong with that), but then you have blackouts unless you're going to subsidize building out my generation capacity.
- mikeash 11y agoIt amazes me how well the stuff works most of the time, considering that it's a ridiculously just-in-time system where production must match consumption on a second-by-second basis. No other industry is like this. I think we badly need good storage solutions to decouple the two sides.
- barney54 11y agoThe lack of storage isn't a problem when you are using reliable sources of generation such as nukes, coal, nat gas, and hydro. He problem is integrating wind and solar into a system that is designed for reliable generation.
- mikeash 11y agoIt's still a problem, because it means you need to size generating capacity to match peak demand, not average demand. It's a problem that can be (and is) solved, but the solution is expensive, and when you misjudge the peak you get brownouts or blackouts.
- WalterBright 11y agoThe right way to do deal with this is to have variable, minute by minute pricing. Fixed prices don't make much sense when the supply varies dramatically.
- nawitus 11y agoYou can buy electricity with pricing like that in Finland, it's generally cheaper if you're using significant amounts of electricity. (Although I'm not completely sure if it's minute by minute or hourly rates).
- kaybe 11y agoI find it interesting how big of a no-go that idea still is. Countries seem to be prepared to pay a very high price instead.
- yongjik 11y agoDoesn't seem much worse than where I am now. California has been recommending people to limit use of water for more than a year, and water is arguably a more basic necessity than electricity.
- fulafel 11y agoAccording to WP Finland produces just 1.4% of electricity with wind power on average, pretty surprising if they managed to still get into trouble with that.
- mmaunder 11y agoThe charts further down the page give one a more realistic sense of how much wind contributes as a whole. Natural gas dominates with 48% of power generated while wind is around 12%. It's tough to beat heat sources driving turbines.
- Cshelton 11y agoFor those who do not know: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Interconnection https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Interconnection Texas is the only state that has it's own power grid, owned by the state. The stuff they are working on right now, including massive distributed battery systems, solar, more wind, etc. will be the one of the most advanced renewable systems in the world given the amount of power and consumption. It's awesome to see how as 'relatively' small grid, operating on their own, can make progress without all the bullshit. (See Nevada...that solar situation is so fucked up.).
- toomuchtodo 11y agoI'm actually both shocked and surprised how quickly Texas is transitioning to renewables with their, ahem, political climate, but happy nonetheless! Warren Buffet should be ashamed of Berkshire Hathaway's role in strongarming the PUC in Nevada in NV Energy's favor.
- sremani 11y agoExcept for some pockets around Austin, and some Retail Energy Providers and co-ops, Texas does not have net-metering for distributed solar.
- _delirium 11y agoIt's true that oil & gas are powerful political interests, but there are others as well. In this case, I don't think it's so much out of a desire to be "green" as out of a desire to develop what's seen as a big potential energy resource. West Texas has a lot of pretty steady wind, so it's seen as a valuable economic resource to develop. Wind energy also has its own state-level political clout and lobbying, because large landowners in West Texas see it as a way of improving monetization of their large holdings of ranchland, and large West Texas landowners are a well-organized interest group. Heck, even small farmers have similar hopes of increasing their income by renting out turbine rights, which adds to the political pressure to enable wind development.
- GFK_of_xmaspast 11y agoWarren Buffet should be ashamed of Berkshire Hathaway's role in a lot of things.
- dtornabene 11y agoYou can actually see it. Driving country (state) highways, from ,say, just west of Ft Worth, up to the border, hundreds of turbines. There's also a factory in between Ft Worth and Denton where, I believe, some pieces of the turbines are built and (I know) the larger section of the turbines are assembled. It makes sense as well, especially to the west, where wind is a near constant and there is nothing. Scrub from the central hill country to the border with New Mexico.
- sremani 11y agoThat is one of the reasons why Facebook Data Center is in Ft.Worth, easier access to Wind power.
- dtornabene 11y agoDidn't know that and I tend to follow these things pretty close. Born and partially raised in DFW. Thanks for the reply.
- mikeyouse 11y agoWind power.. and tens of millions in tax credits.. It's crazy how much money localities are dishing out to get a few dozen jobs. I get the competitive aspect (if we don't, someone else will) but forum shopping is gross in just about every manifestation.
- ilvnvtoomuch 11y agoIts good to hear this from TX. I want to see wind installations grown, given how affordable land is.
- maxerickson 11y agoI wonder if a growing industry will ever again set a single day power generation record. Seems rather likely. It might be more interesting to report when a new record is not set on the expected schedule.
- drkrab 11y agoIn Denmark, it was 42% for all of 2015; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power_in_Denmark https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power_in_Denmark
- david-given 11y agoThat's 42% of electricity only, though. In 2013 (the last year for which the table in Wikipedia has data) they consumed ~30 TWh of electricity --- but 200 TWh of fossil fuels. This'll be heating and transport. Heating and transport always dominates energy consumption. Yes, generating that much electricity via renewables is a very good thing. But electricity is just a small slice of a much larger pie.
- _delirium 11y agoHow much of a dent it will make remains to be seen, but Denmark does have an active plan to shift away from fossil fuels for heating. Installation of new oil and natural-gas furnaces was recently banned, partly as part of the push away from fossil fuels, and partly because of fears of Russian dominance over gas supplies. In urban areas the goal is to get everyone on the district-heating grid, which is fueled mostly by a mix of trash incinerators and cogeneration with electric power plants. There's a medium-term plan to opportunistically produce more of the heat from excess wind power, with hopes that doing so will produce a "win-win" for electric-grid management by giving grid managers an easy place to dump energy to smooth out short-term variations in electric production. Transport is another story. Lots of fossil fuels there, and probably not going away soon.
- MicroBerto 11y agoWhat, ahem, political climate would that be? Y'all think this state is full of idiots. Y'all are only half-wrong, and it's still probably better than your state.
- enraged_camel 11y agoI live in Texas and I'm as surprised as the parent. It's not that I think the state is "full of idiots" as you say, but because the oil and gas industry has the state by the balls. edit: judging by the downvotes, apparently this is a controversial statement. weird.
- aaron695 11y agoI don't think you deserve downvotes for this comment. But surly you'd be aware this is what the rest of the world thinks? The first thing the world thinks of when they think of Texas is racist, backwards, ultra religious people. I'm surprised you'd be surprised of this?
- krapp 11y agoPeople tend to be surprised when confronted with stereotypes about themselves, especially when those stereotypes are untrue.
- toomuchtodo 11y ago> Y'all think this state is full of idiots. Y'all are only half-wrong, and it's still probably better than your state. Texas ranks dead last in education, healthcare, and most indicators of quality of life. Clearly, it can't be better than any other state, unless your compared metrics are restricted to "no taxes" or "cheap housing".
- jeremyt 11y agosource?
- Ocerge 11y agoI drove from Austin to Denver once. From Abilene to Texline it's pretty much nothing but wind turbines...and that is a very long drive. It's pretty cool that such an oil-driven state has a large amount of renewable energy.
- Nicholas_C 11y agoI used to drive from my hometown around Austin to Lubbock for school. The wide open country pocked with turbines was my favorite part of the six hour drive.
- Animats 11y agoWind gets even better going northward from the Texas panhandle up to Canada. But there's no big load anywhere near there.
- andy_ppp 11y agoIt's all those refried beans and smoked meats...