Half of Texas Wind Turbines Freeze,
Hurting Electricity Output
Breitbart,
by
Joel B. Pollak
Original Article
Posted By: mc squared,
2/16/2021 10:12:25 AM
Nearly half of the wind turbines in the state of Texas froze in recent winter weather, hurting state power supplies, according to state authorities. The Austin American-Statesman reported Sunday: Nearly half of Texas’ installed wind power generation capacity has been offline because of frozen wind turbines in West Texas, according to Texas grid operators. Wind farms across the state generate up to a combined 25,100 megawatts of energy. But unusually moist winter conditions in West Texas brought on by the weekend’s freezing rain and historically low temperatures have iced many of those wind turbines to a halt. As of Sunday morning, those iced turbines comprise
Reply 1 - Posted by:
mythman 2/16/2021 10:20:58 AM (No. 697811)
Not a problem. It's OK if thousands die in the furtherance of Communist Socialism. Gov Cuomo showed us that. He's in the vanguard.
23 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
LC Chihuahua 2/16/2021 10:26:16 AM (No. 697818)
Texas isn't the only state with wind turbines. Do other states have this problem as well? If not, what's going on?
6 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
GO3 2/16/2021 10:34:55 AM (No. 697835)
#2, I can see the tops of about eight wind turbines from our porch. It was two degrees this AM. About half are turning, which is not unusual. Not a big sample size, but your question is valid.
5 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
czechlist 2/16/2021 10:50:22 AM (No. 697852)
I believe the nameplate value for Texas wind generation is 32GW. That is on an ideal wind day and all turbines are operating as designed. How many ideal days are there? An ERCOT report I read said the average dsily power generated is around 10GW. Then there are the transmission line losses from the remote areas.
5 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
Ribicon 2/16/2021 10:54:41 AM (No. 697859)
Turning blades does not mean that the turbines are generating any power. An article from a few years ago noted that when turbines no longer work, either because they've outlived their planned lifespan or because they're too expensive to repair or take down, they let the blades spin anyway so that people don't get mad about the turbines not working.
11 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
DVC 2/16/2021 11:42:47 AM (No. 697929)
Nothing wrong with a wind turbine that the proper amount of demolition charges properly applied to the base wouldn't fix.
Get rid of these damned financial disaster eyesores.
13 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
JunkYardDog 2/16/2021 11:44:09 AM (No. 697935)
The wind turbines froze ?? Yet another failure of imagination by the Green New Deal idiots.
11 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
planetgeo 2/16/2021 12:01:13 PM (No. 697969)
The hyper-environmentalists are driving this country into a complete economic and standard of living disaster. How stupid do you have to be to not accept that a balanced portfolio of ALL viable energy sources (nuclear, gas, coal, solar, wind, hydro) is the way to go. The greenie-wienies' dream of 100% renewable is absurd and will make life a living hell. And an expensive one at that.
13 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
mc squared 2/16/2021 12:11:54 PM (No. 697991)
Someone better informed than I am can help. In cold climes the turbines are warmed ELECTRICALLY, to keep the grease and gears in motion. Texas isn't seen as needing the heaters.
6 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
navybrat 2/16/2021 12:19:54 PM (No. 698004)
We are experiencing a very dangerous situation. It is a killer. We need to continue to drill, frack, refine and produce fossil fuels. It is a disaster to naively think wind mills, turbines, sun panels can safely provide our energy needs. It does not matter if it happens every 7, 8 or 20 years, it is dangerous when it happens. We should have never let politicians put us in this position and should stop them now. Get the Keystone pipeline back operating.
13 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
skacmar 2/16/2021 12:22:20 PM (No. 698010)
I'm sure the good people of Great Falls Minnesota, Marquette Michigan, Nome Alaska, and Buffalo NY can't wait until they have wind power and get to experience the winter freeze. I'm pretty sure that the people who live in hurricane areas will also enjoy having their electricity cut when the wind turbines need to be shut down due to high winds anytime there is a storm coming. And don't forget getting the turbines fixed after the ice, snow, or hurricane damage. People might be out of power for longer than normal. I guess having no power will be very "green".
9 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
Proud Texan 2/16/2021 12:59:46 PM (No. 698059)
wind turbines are great at getting tax dollars, killing birds, and no much else, unless you consider the low frequency hum that give some people health problems. Producing electricity,rubbing a balloon against your hair works.
8 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
Venturer 2/16/2021 1:46:41 PM (No. 698109)
Here is my theory. In some places where it normally freezes the Wind Generators are defrosted by helicopters de-icing them. Using fossil fuel by the way, and these Wind generators also use oil for Lubrication,, and that has to be changed occasionally.
Anyway this ice storm was not normal to Texas, and they don't have the helicopters on standby.
So their generators quit working.
Nothing will replace a good Nuclear reactor for generating energy.
Of course there is nowhere to put the radioactive waste, but then where will they bury all of the batteries when all cars are electric, and the batteries that store the electricity from Solar Panels and Wind generators die, and where will they bury all of the wind generator blades that never dissolve. and where will all of the components that make these batteries be dug up and will the machines digging it up be electric or diesel?
4 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
Ribicon 2/16/2021 1:51:38 PM (No. 698118)
One article I'd saved on turbines in the UK, which cost far more in subsidies than they produce in electricity, and that produce only a small fraction of the power that the backers said they would. And that's on top of the noise, vibration, dead birds, and eyesore, especially given that dismantling the dead turbines is never part of the budget, so they simply let them spin once they expire.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1355419/UKs-useless-wind-turbine-Cost-130k-raise-electricity-worth-100k.html
6 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
Cat Ballou 2/16/2021 2:04:32 PM (No. 698127)
Don't you just hate it when that happens..........welcome to the real world and mother nature.
3 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
DVC 2/16/2021 2:49:59 PM (No. 698180)
#4, there is a little understood technical limitation of ALL wind machines. It is just a bit technical, but it is important to understand, because it is fundamental to why wind turbines are such a truly ROTTEN technology, and ALWAYS will be. It is the fundamental nature of the energy in wind.
The horsepower available in wind varies as the CUBE of the wind speed. So, what does this mean, for those who hated math and quickly forgot all they learned in school? It means that very small reduction in wind speed cause very LARGE reduction in the power than can be extracted.
Because most of what it out on the web on wind turbines is puffy propaganda trying to convince people how amazing and wonderful these damned contraptions are, it is difficult to find the design wind speed values. Ultimately, the exact design wind speed isn't critical to understanding why they suck so much.
Assume that the wind turbine is designed to operate effectively at 20 mph wind. So, if they work great at 20 mph, what about lower speeds? Well, since power available varies with the cube of wind speed, the power available at 10 mph will be 1/8th of the power produced at 20 mph. Here are some numbers, comparing different wind speeds to what the turbine makes a 20 mph.
20 mph >>> 1.0 times "20 mph power"
18 mph >>> 0.73 times "20 mph power" -- 2mph less wind speed loses more than 1/4 power
16 mph >>> 0.52 times "20 mph power" -- 4 mph less wind speed loses almost HALF the power
12 mph >>> 0.22 times "20 mph power" -- drop from 20 to 12 mph, lose 3/4 of your power
8 mph >>> 0.06 times "20 mph power" -- shut down here, not making enough power to bother
Take home: Wind turbines suffer MASSIVE drop in power output with slight reductions in wind speed.
This if fundamental, caused by the power in the wind, NOTHING in the design of the turbine can overcome this, it is the limit in how much power is available to be captured.
Wind turbines are a technical JOKE. They are so inefficient, so uneconomical, so unnecessary that NOBODY would ever build them without GOVERNMENT subsidies, and laws requiring that power companies buy this unreliable, super expensive power.
Stop the windmills!
7 people like this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
DVC 2/16/2021 2:54:41 PM (No. 698186)
If they'd just put in a couple of new nuke plants, there would be enough power to heat the windmills and then those windmills could produce 1/8th power that the nuke plants would make.
Wind mills are ultra stupid, ONLY possible by government edict with bales and bales of taxpayer money piled on the fires of corruption and payoffs. Companies get rich from these subsidies, and would instantly go bankrupt without government money, and laws REQUIRING that their power be purchased at VERY high, GUARANTEED prices.
5 people like this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
Penney 2/16/2021 2:56:21 PM (No. 698192)
The political, 'environmentalists,' are in such a hurry to rule the world that they are forcing taxpayers to pay for wind turbines, solar panels, electric cars, etc., before these boondoggles are ready for prime time! What con artists these politicos are as their failures are piling up only after people get hurt. Every renovation the greenies come up with has flaws they either don't factor in or else they simply ignore, so driven are they for political power to dictate their use. This arctic blast proves the reality about their wind turbine folly.
4 people like this.
Reply 19 - Posted by:
smokincol 2/16/2021 3:01:56 PM (No. 698197)
has President Donald J. Trump not mentioned the uselessness of wind power many, many times? yes, he has and, was he right then and is he right now? yes, yes and yes.
5 people like this.
Reply 20 - Posted by:
MickTurn 2/16/2021 3:09:06 PM (No. 698210)
Hey Californication, We in Texas have some Windmills for sale, CHEAP!
2 people like this.
Reply 21 - Posted by:
red1066 2/16/2021 4:19:48 PM (No. 698289)
It was my understanding that these wind turbines are shut down when the winds reach a certain speed. Once shut down, the snow and ice can keep it from starting up again.
2 people like this.
Reply 22 - Posted by:
swarfer 2/16/2021 10:54:23 PM (No. 698640)
Wind turbine blades are just wings. Just like airplanes ice can form on the leading edge. When this happens wings begin to loose lift force. Aircraft begin to descend or if severe, all lift is lost and the aircraft stalls and falls from the sky. Wind turbine blades are affected the same way. More ice means less efficient blades and reduced generating power until the turbine is shutdown to avoid damage.
Aircraft have expensive deicing systems but Texas wind turbines apparently don’t. Seemed like a good cost effective decision at the time since Texas usually needs power in the summer and all that global warming. One chance in 20 years for an icing event right? Well, guess what?
0 people like this.
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Sadly, It had to happen eventually. Here's hoping your governor doesn't send people without heat to nursing homes. Please Texans, don't turn your state into Texafornia.