9 ms·
Texas is the leader in wind power in the US, and #2 in solar. https://www.kxan.com/weather/green-energy-report-where-does-texas-rank-in-solar-wind-nuclear-ener
by undefined1 6y ago
Texas is the leader in wind power in the US, and #2 in solar.
https://www.kxan.com/weather/green-energy-report-where-does-texas-rank-in-solar-wind-nuclear-energy/ https://www.kxan.com/weather/green-energy-report-where-does-...
If Texas were a country, it would rank fifth in the world: The installed wind capacity in Texas exceeds installed wind capacity in all countries but China, the United States, Germany and India. Texas produces the most wind power of any U.S. state.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power_in_Texas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power_in_Texas
- walrus01 6y agoand yet 85% of their grid power is produced from gas, oil and coal, a tiny portion from nuclear.
- sremani 6y agoTexas grid is about a quarter powered by Wind. Since Wind and Solar are dynamic - there may be variations and how they are measured, but to claim Texas Electric Portfolio is 85% fossil is not right numbers. Coal is almost dead and there is minimal oil for electric generation. Hawaii burns oil more than Texas. I think there are 2 nuclear power plants .. one is Comanche Peak which is south west of DFW, not sure of the other. edit: https://www.eia.gov/state/?sid=TX#tabs-4 https://www.eia.gov/state/?sid=TX#tabs-4 (click the electricity tab)
- arnmac 6y agoOther is the South Texas Nuclear Plant - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Texas_Nuclear_Generating_Station https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Texas_Nuclear_Generating...
- stephenhuey 6y agoLocals call it STP. I’ve looked at the blinking lights on the domes from my aunt’s farmhouse since childhood. It provides power to 2 million homes a couple hundred miles away in central Texas.
- ineedasername 6y agoAnd even one of their nuclear plants had to shut down from the cold.
- seanmcdirmid 6y agoOne of the reactors of one of the nuclear plants. Each nuclear plant has two reacts, so 1/4 tripped.
- Dylan16807 6y ago15-20% renewable power doesn't mean they aren't "a bastion of oil/petrochemical industry climate change denialism", especially given how much oil they produce.
- onepointsixC 6y agoNonsense, they're ahead of the game, as natural gas turbines are the only currently existing scalable solution which could potentially handle variable production of Solar and Wind.
- Dylan16807 6y agoWhy is that nonsense? Being ahead of the game on wind doesn't make everything else they do disappear. Stance on petrochemicals isn't a single dial that turns back and forth and affects everything you do in unison.
- fastball 6y agoHow is one of the most renewable energy places on earth a "bastion of the oil/petrochemical industry"? The answer to the question "where else in the US?" is basically "everywhere else in the US".
- TylerE 6y agoUh, how is it not? Texas produces 41% of US oil, more than 4x any other state. They also dominate refinery capacity.
- fastball 6y agoSounds like Texas is a bastion of energy.
- megaman821 6y agoMaybe even the energy capital of the world.
- qqqwerty 6y agoAny drug dealer will tell you "Don't get high on your own supply". It is good business.
- minsc__and__boo 6y ago>Texas is the leader in wind power in the US Not per capita, it isn't: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power_in_North_Dakota#/media/File:State_Per_Capita_Monthly_Wind_Generation_2017.svg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power_in_North_Dakota#/me... This is important given the shear size and consumption of Texas compared to other states.
- LMYahooTFY 6y agoWhat's the relevance or value added here? The fact that states with notably high winds and 1/30 of the population are 3-6x higher in a per capita metric is predictable based on these simple approximations.
- _nalply 6y agoThe idea is that people need that power. If a state with a lot of people has a lot of power generation this will be not enough if per-capita power generation is too low. Of course power can be imported but overall per-capita seems to be more important than the total.
- criley2 6y agoI don't like per capita metrics with states because some states are the size of countries in population, and others like the one referenced are more like cities. (North Dakota pop: 700k, Dallas city pop: 1.3 mil). It's like saying "Well Germany does X, but Luxembourg has better per capita stats!" Ya don't say... perhaps there's a reason! Maybe Germany should be more like Luxembourg
- dariusj18 6y agoIsn't per capita a more equalizing metric? If you go off raw numbers the data will be skewed even more heavily. Though there are certainly other methods to compare, such as per km^2, that you could use to perform other comparisons, depending.
- ithkuil 6y ago> If Texas were a country [..] the installed wind capacity in Texas exceeds installed wind capacity [..] except[..], the United States [..] Is this a tautology or this counterfactual removes texan capacity from United States total?
- relaxing 6y agoIt is tautologly. Here: China: 236,402 MW United States: 105,466 MW Germany: 61,357 MW India: 37,506 MW Texas: 28,843 MW Spain: 25,808 MW
- myspy 6y agoBeing behind Germany is no achievement in the grand scheme either, because we need much more wind turbines but legislation does try to prevent them. The general public still does not get that climate change is a frickin problem that needs to be addressed asap.