Officials say situation in Texas is terrible, as about 3 million homes and businesses remain without power after a record storm. As some of the coldest temperatures in decades have hit the Lone Star State, many pointed the blame on an unusual source: wind turbines.
While the state energy grid can handle its extremely hot summers, it’s not so prepared for the harsh winter – extremes which should only get worse as escalating climate crisis. Frozen wind turbines across the state have led some conservative politicians to declare that renewable energy it is responsible for catastrophic power failures and continuous blackouts.
“This is what happens when you force the network to rely in part on the wind as a source of energy,” Republican Congressman Dan Crenshaw tweeted Tuesday. “When weather conditions get worse like this week, intermittent renewable energy, like wind, is not available when you need it.”
“We should never build another wind turbine in Texas,” wrote Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller on Facebook. “The experiment failed at a great time.”
Texas Governor Greg Abbott shared the sentiment and took the opportunity to criticize the Green New Deal.
“It shows how the New Green Deal would be a deadly deal for the United States of America,” Abbott said to Sean Hannity of Fox News on Tuesday. “Our wind and solar power systems were shut down and, together, they were more than 10% of our power grid, which put Texas in a statewide power outage.”
But the Texas Electric Reliability Council (ERCOT), which supplies about 90 percent of the state with energy, said on Tuesday that wind power accounts for only a fraction of the loss. Of the 45,000 megawatts of power turned off during the peak, 30,000 megawatts originated from natural gas, while 16,000 megawatts came from wind turbines.
“Of the energy deficit that hit Texas, more than 80% was due to problems at coal and gas plants,” reported PolitiFact.
Experts say traditional sources of energy, including coal and natural gas, underperformed, while wind power actually performed above expectations.
“The main story remains the failure of the thermoelectric plants – natural gas, coal and nuclear power – with which ERCOT hopes to be there when needed. They have failed,” said Princeton engineering professor Jesse Jenkins. tweeted Tuesday. “Those of you who have heard that frozen wind turbines are to blame for this, think again. The extreme demand and disruptions to thermal power plants are the main cause.”
Proponents of renewable energy criticized state officials for blaming only the turbines.
“It is unfortunate to see the old antagonists of clean power – who attack you whether it’s raining, snowing or the sun is shining – engaging in a politically opportunistic charade that tricks Americans into promoting an agenda that has nothing to do with restoring the power of Texas communities, “Heather Zichal, American CEO The Clean Energy Association said in a statement Tuesday. “It is an extreme climate problem, not a clean energy problem. At the very least, it shows why we need to invest in building more renewable energy sources with better transmission and storage to replace outdated systems. ”
Both ERCOT and energy analysts say natural gas, which supplies just over a third of Texas energy and heats about 40% of their homes, is responsible for the outages.
“By far, the biggest disruptions came from our natural gas plants,” Daniel Cohan, associate professor of environmental engineering at Rice University, told CBS MoneyWatch reporter Irina Ivanova. “One part was interrupted for scheduled maintenance. Others were not designed to operate reliably in extremely cold climates and others were not able to obtain a sufficient supply of natural gas.”
“It appears that much of the generation that went offline today was mainly due to problems with the natural gas system,” Dan Woodfin, senior director of ERCOT, told reporters.
Abbott also acknowledged it, in contrast to his comments on Fox News. “The ability of some companies to generate energy is frozen. This includes natural gas and coal generators, ”he said. tweeted Monday.
In addition, anti-icing methods are available to keep wind turbines operating in cold temperatures, but Texas has not invested in them due to the rarity of the severe cold there.
“Iowa and Denmark get a higher percentage of their energy from the wind than we do. There are ways to prepare many of these energy suppliers for the winter, but it costs money and requires energy and maintenance,” said Cohan. “In Texas and the South, we are more focused on keeping our lights on in the summer.”
ERCOT said it is prepared for winter storms – but even its most extreme forecasts have been overcome by this week’s severe weather, and energy demand has skyrocketed. Almost all power sources failed during the storm, according to the US Department of Energy.
Texas is the only state in the continental United States that has its own separate power grid – it is not regulated by the federal government and is disconnected from neighboring states. On Tuesday, Abbott ordered an investigation into ERCOT.
“The Texas Electric Reliability Council has been anything but reliable for the past 48 hours. Many Texans are without power and heating for their homes,” he said in a statement. demonstration. “This is unacceptable.”