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A nuclear power plant went down when it's lake froze. Coal power plants did the same. Natural gas fared better when the supply wasn't frozen, because natural ga
by csours 4y ago
A nuclear power plant went down when it's lake froze. Coal power plants did the same. Natural gas fared better when the supply wasn't frozen, because natural gas turbines don't require intensive cooling that steam generation does. And yes, it's really ironic that steam generation had to stop due to lack of cooling on the coldest day of the year.
Wind Turbine gearboxes froze up (oil congealed, not froze) because they were too cold and also not winterized. They could have been but they weren't.
Solar could have powered some people's homes, but most home solar turns off when the grid turns off.
- sidewndr46 4y agoWhen it is overcast in Texas residential solar doesn't really generate an appreciable amounts of power. It is grid tie so despite what many people think they don't have any power in the case of the grid going out. I know of a few folks on co-op power that are allowed to have Tesla powerwall (or similar). But in that case they can't sell power back into the grid economically. The reason why the 2021 freeze was so intense is that during the day we didn't get sun, we had cloud cover 24 hours a day. It's entirely normal to get freezing nights in most of Texas. But by 10 AM stuff is back up to a temperature that it's 40 F or so because of the sun. When we get days upon days or freezing nights followed by even just overcast weather, that is when it becomes an issue.
- abathur 4y agoNot sure I'd blame the cloud cover over the polar airmass wrt intensity. I think we had at least a couple sunny days in Houston (I remember opening blinds to get as much free heat as possible) and still didn't get out of the low 20s iirc.