February 19, 2021
The Texas Two Step
Timothy Birdnow
Wonder why Texas is suffering blackouts? It's because they went with wind and solar and tried to make up the balance when those "renewables" didn't work with natural gas - and have no way to store it. Below is a graph showing the problem in a nutshell:
Most of the electricity generated is coming from gas, but as you can see even that dropped way off even while the cold weather hit. You can't make something from nothing.
It's clear they have a problem storing the gas, at least in sufficient quantities. Coal is easy to store, and nuclear too. Renewables are very hard to store and so is natural gas. Oil is strangely absent from this, as oil is a rather common Texas commodity. Apparently they don't use oil for heating in the Lone Star State.
This shows what happens when you put all your eggs in one basket, which is what was done with gas here as it augments the foolishness of wind and solar, largely useless energy sources for mass consumption.
Wonder why Texas is suffering blackouts? It's because they went with wind and solar and tried to make up the balance when those "renewables" didn't work with natural gas - and have no way to store it. Below is a graph showing the problem in a nutshell:
Most of the electricity generated is coming from gas, but as you can see even that dropped way off even while the cold weather hit. You can't make something from nothing.
It's clear they have a problem storing the gas, at least in sufficient quantities. Coal is easy to store, and nuclear too. Renewables are very hard to store and so is natural gas. Oil is strangely absent from this, as oil is a rather common Texas commodity. Apparently they don't use oil for heating in the Lone Star State.
This shows what happens when you put all your eggs in one basket, which is what was done with gas here as it augments the foolishness of wind and solar, largely useless energy sources for mass consumption.
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
04:09 PM
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The problem they had with gas was not storing it, it had to do with transporting it.
For years the pipeline pumping stations were powered by the gas that was right there in the gas lines. There were nifty twelve cylinder engines, with six cylinders being fed natural gas from the pipeline to run the engine and the other six serving as a pump to push the gas on down the pipeline. Sort of a self-licking ice cream cone in a way, and supremely economical.
So they stopped that process and went to turbine pumps driven by electric motors and, of course, when the electric power failed, so did the gas supply.
For years the pipeline pumping stations were powered by the gas that was right there in the gas lines. There were nifty twelve cylinder engines, with six cylinders being fed natural gas from the pipeline to run the engine and the other six serving as a pump to push the gas on down the pipeline. Sort of a self-licking ice cream cone in a way, and supremely economical.
So they stopped that process and went to turbine pumps driven by electric motors and, of course, when the electric power failed, so did the gas supply.
Posted by: Bill H at February 19, 2021 07:44 PM (/sW5m)
2
Thanks Bill; I did not know that. I do remember there used to be huge cylanders for storing gas in the old days, and they are pretty much all gone now. I rather figured they were monkeying around with all of this.
Yeah; using electricity to make electricity. Sounds like something these boneheads would do.
Yeah; using electricity to make electricity. Sounds like something these boneheads would do.
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at February 20, 2021 08:20 AM (erfAJ)
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