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Texas is actually deeply connected to wind now. https://qz.com/1103816/texas-wind-power-capacity-will-overtake-coal-in-2018-after-the-shuttering-of-three-coal

by nsnick 9y ago

Texas is actually deeply connected to wind now. https://qz.com/1103816/texas-wind-power-capacity-will-overtake-coal-in-2018-after-the-shuttering-of-three-coal-power-plants/ https://qz.com/1103816/texas-wind-power-capacity-will-overta...

greglindahl 9y ago
Wind and solar are complementary -- so that's not a reason for solar to be less popular.
- todd8 9y ago
  Although a recent Scientific American article had a few quotes suggesting wind and solar being complementary [1], these seemed more anecdotal than persuasive. Other studies do indicate that they are complementary, but don't seem to apply to Texas [2] and [3]. A nice (unpublished?) study supporting the complementary effect of wind and solar power for California concludes that these source of power are complementary [4], but makes an important simplifying assumption that will have to be investigated before we can conclude that solar and wind really are complements. It assumes that each day of a month can be approximated by the average day of the month. A study that looks at fine grained (i.e. daily) variations in output concludes (among other things) [5] that > A Wind and solar energy were observed to be highly complementary on an annual basis, but only slightly complementary on a daily basis. I'm not an expert in this area, but it may be that within Texas specifically that wind is currently viewed as the easiest way to add renewable energy production and that we can expect the benefits from solar's greater or lesser complementary production to come along in the future. [1] https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/wind-and-solar-are-better-together/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/wind-and-solar-ar... [2] http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148113005594# http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148113... and http://iet.jrc.ec.europa.eu/remea/assessing-complementarity-wind-and-solar-resources-energy-production-italy-monte-carlo-approach http://iet.jrc.ec.europa.eu/remea/assessing-complementarity-... [3] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/261172609_PV_and_Wind_Power_-_Complementary_Technologies https://www.researchgate.net/publication/261172609_PV_and_Wi... [4] https://web.stanford.edu/group/efmh/jacobson/Articles/I/CombiningRenew/HosteFinalDraft.pdf https://web.stanford.edu/group/efmh/jacobson/Articles/I/Comb... [5] http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/er.4440030202/abstract http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/er.4440030202/abs...
  - greglindahl 9y ago
    Complementary can make many things. You usually need long-distance transmission for wind power - in Texas the good wind is in the panhandle, well away from urban areas. Rooftop solar is usually right where the power is used -- urban areas. So if you have limited and slowly-growing long-distance transmission, rooftop solar is a way to get more renewables into the same grid. That's one kind of complementary.

by nsnick 9y ago

greglindahl 9y ago

Wind and solar are complementary -- so that's not a reason for solar to be less popular.

todd8 9y ago
Although a recent Scientific American article had a few quotes suggesting wind and solar being complementary [1], these seemed more anecdotal than persuasive. Other studies do indicate that they are complementary, but don't seem to apply to Texas [2] and [3]. A nice (unpublished?) study supporting the complementary effect of wind and solar power for California concludes that these source of power are complementary [4], but makes an important simplifying assumption that will have to be investigated before we can conclude that solar and wind really are complements. It assumes that each day of a month can be approximated by the average day of the month. A study that looks at fine grained (i.e. daily) variations in output concludes (among other things) [5] that > A Wind and solar energy were observed to be highly complementary on an annual basis, but only slightly complementary on a daily basis. I'm not an expert in this area, but it may be that within Texas specifically that wind is currently viewed as the easiest way to add renewable energy production and that we can expect the benefits from solar's greater or lesser complementary production to come along in the future. [1] https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/wind-and-solar-are-better-together/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/wind-and-solar-ar... [2] http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148113005594# http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148113... and http://iet.jrc.ec.europa.eu/remea/assessing-complementarity-wind-and-solar-resources-energy-production-italy-monte-carlo-approach http://iet.jrc.ec.europa.eu/remea/assessing-complementarity-... [3] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/261172609_PV_and_Wind_Power_-_Complementary_Technologies https://www.researchgate.net/publication/261172609_PV_and_Wi... [4] https://web.stanford.edu/group/efmh/jacobson/Articles/I/CombiningRenew/HosteFinalDraft.pdf https://web.stanford.edu/group/efmh/jacobson/Articles/I/Comb... [5] http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/er.4440030202/abstract http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/er.4440030202/abs...
- greglindahl 9y ago
  Complementary can make many things. You usually need long-distance transmission for wind power - in Texas the good wind is in the panhandle, well away from urban areas. Rooftop solar is usually right where the power is used -- urban areas. So if you have limited and slowly-growing long-distance transmission, rooftop solar is a way to get more renewables into the same grid. That's one kind of complementary.