Frozen wind turbines hamper Texas power
output, state's electric grid operator says
Austin American-Statesman [TX],
by
Brandon Mulder
Original Article
Posted By: NorthernDog,
2/15/2021 6:15:05 PM
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 12,000 megawatts of Texas' installed wind generation capacity, although those West Texas turbines don't typically spin to their full generation capacity this time of year.
Reply 1 - Posted by:
stevendm 2/15/2021 6:18:50 PM (No. 697276)
Stupid idea.
29 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
Heil Liberals 2/15/2021 6:28:00 PM (No. 697282)
Bwahahahaha! You simply can’t make this crap up.
36 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
Luandir 2/15/2021 6:28:07 PM (No. 697283)
Has that ever happened with coal?
31 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
bad-hair 2/15/2021 6:33:18 PM (No. 697288)
In Canada at -43 for weeks they freeze up and the blades break. The have Turbine blade graveyards. The Euro engineers who design the things say it's not supposed to get that cold.
32 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
lgplgp 2/15/2021 6:34:01 PM (No. 697290)
FERC Chairman McIntyre testified at a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing on January 23 that “[coal] wasn’t exempt from operational problems [during the Bomb Cyclone] … there were some issues as I understand it with frozen coal piles at certain sites.”
So yes, it can kinda happen with coal
7 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
Folsomguy 2/15/2021 6:37:41 PM (No. 697291)
How come our hydro and coal powered electricity is working? Doesn't that pollute the earth?
16 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
Ida Lou Pino 2/15/2021 6:39:14 PM (No. 697292)
Windmills frozen?
So what? Who needs electricity in the winter time? Besides - - we've got to do everything we can to make it even colder - - otherwise - - we all die!
18 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
rockeysroomie 2/15/2021 6:39:36 PM (No. 697293)
As Bob Dylan's song, Subterranean Homesick Blues says: You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.
13 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
DVC 2/15/2021 6:45:59 PM (No. 697300)
Damned ugly, unreliable, stupid, expensive JOKES is what those damned turbines are.
28 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
DVC 2/15/2021 6:48:12 PM (No. 697301)
#3, sometimes the coal pile would ice over, according to a friend that managed a power plant for years before he retired about 10 years ago. Then they'd get the bulldozer out and just push some of the coal up, ice and all and push it over to the feed hopper into the ball mill.
Not a problem, just a bit different procedure, instead of self feeding, in extreme weather, the coal needed a bit of a push. No sweat.
32 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
Phantomll 2/15/2021 6:53:55 PM (No. 697312)
Now what happens to the people with the idiot electric cars? Guess they can't recharge them and can't go anywhere. Thanks to the global warming religion.
22 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
Skinnydip 2/15/2021 6:55:59 PM (No. 697313)
With all this global warming I guess they didn't think we'd need windmills for heating.
12 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
MickTurn 2/15/2021 7:01:39 PM (No. 697315)
Wind Power is Strongest downwind from Washington DC. Imagine the POWER of 535 Windbags and countless Bureaucrats and Swamp Creatures all Lying at once. It would power the whole Galaxy!!!
We don't need No Stinkin' Windmills, we got these Windbags! Also know the Wind comes out of the top end and the Gas comes out the bottom end...A Twofer!
17 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
Rumblehog 2/15/2021 7:09:12 PM (No. 697320)
Germany is having the same problem, and worse. They're wind turbines froze up, but due to lack of any wind. It also snowed there so heavy that it covered all of the solar panels in their massive array "parks." They got NET ZERO power from "renewables," and had to revert back to {gasp} COAL!
As soon as Bidet announces rejoining the Paris Climate Accords over Global Warming, we get massive freak cold weather storms around the world shutting off energy. Where's Al Gore these days? He turned out to be the "Ice Man" whenever he went to speak somewhere about Global Warming. The American Indians never had as reliable "Rain Man" as Al Gore was an "Ice Man."
18 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
Skinnydip 2/15/2021 7:15:12 PM (No. 697321)
Maybe that’s why so many Texans (including me) have natural gas generators. Mine’s going right now. Both our next door neighbors don’t have one. They’re Democrats.
22 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
John C 2/15/2021 7:20:07 PM (No. 697324)
May I be the first to say: We told you so!
14 people like this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
Nashman 2/15/2021 7:23:52 PM (No. 697327)
This is rich. Just like when they got rid of disposable grocery bags because reusable ones were the permanent answer until Covid... then they were germ carrying killers that you couldn't bring near a store. Wind power is great until you really need it. The lesson? If it ain't broke don't fix it.
21 people like this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
bamapreacher 2/15/2021 7:26:21 PM (No. 697329)
Wait until some day when a volcano spews ash that travels around the world and blocks some of the sun like happened in 1814. Solar panels will be worthless and the temps will drop from lack of sunlight and the U.S. will be in misery.
13 people like this.
Reply 19 - Posted by:
Ribicon 2/15/2021 7:31:36 PM (No. 697331)
Won't someone think of the children?
16 people like this.
Reply 20 - Posted by:
Daria 2/15/2021 7:33:13 PM (No. 697333)
John F. Kerry was aboard his private plane and initially unavailable for comment. Upon landing, he was asked about the situation and said, "Wind turbines...do those require coding? Get Trumka on the line. See if we can send some of those Keystone guys."
13 people like this.
Reply 21 - Posted by:
Heil Liberals 2/15/2021 8:33:16 PM (No. 697365)
#3 - Actually, in a way, yes. Coal that is processed through a washing plant will freeze in the storage area known as the doughnut. They can’t load the coal trains until the coal thaws and is able to moved on belts to the load out. I’m not sure about the power plant storage, but I suppose the same could happen in their storage area too.
6 people like this.
Reply 22 - Posted by:
Old Army Vet 2/15/2021 8:34:20 PM (No. 697367)
How's that green energy working out for you Kerry.
12 people like this.
Reply 23 - Posted by:
DVC 2/15/2021 9:11:57 PM (No. 697381)
Wind power is no power at all.
THIS needs to be used as a hammer to just STOP this fake power nonsense.
11 people like this.
Reply 24 - Posted by:
anniebc 2/15/2021 9:46:40 PM (No. 697403)
Tear down those turbines!
9 people like this.
Reply 25 - Posted by:
chase9365 2/15/2021 9:58:53 PM (No. 697413)
no s#!+
2 people like this.
Wait until the ice falls off the blades and crushes equipment or worse, kills someone. Solar panels are covered with ice too. And you can't even snuggle having to stay 6 feet apart. At least maybe it's keeping the illegals out for awhile.
3 people like this.
Must ask question. When does hydro power pollute the air? After all, this power comes from water, such as dams. As for the "windmills". Har de har har! When one is not spinning or twirling it produces NO electricity, right? Oh I wonder...are there huge batteries somewhere catching winds from a former time and keeping them in a battery? Oh I know. No wind no electricity. Frozen windmills are frozen. No production of energy. I repeat, Har de har har. Mother Nature will have the last laugh.
4 people like this.
Reply 28 - Posted by:
Omen55 2/15/2021 11:34:41 PM (No. 697452)
Now if they had Nuke plants they could use it to run the wind turbines.
4 people like this.
Reply 29 - Posted by:
NotaBene 2/16/2021 12:21:03 AM (No. 697479)
I think this Great Freeze proves that Global Warming is not happening. Let the Chinese slow their industry. We need to be Oil and Gas exporters, not importers.
4 people like this.
For once AOC is not in front of a camera. She needs a road trip to see frozen windmills up close.
5 people like this.
Reply 31 - Posted by:
Trigger2 2/16/2021 1:58:45 AM (No. 697511)
Too bad Wash DC doesn't freeze up and leave that place without power of any kind.
6 people like this.
Reply 32 - Posted by:
hershey 2/16/2021 4:20:01 AM (No. 697543)
And this is what 'they' want us to depend on for power everywhere???? ROTFLMAO
2 people like this.
Texas has one of the larger nuclear plants in the US. It generates 2.5 GW. If they had four more, that would make up the shortfall from the wind plants. Oh, and it would cost about 1/3 the price, and run in any weather, hot, cold, windy, calm, sunny, cloudy, day or night.
With five reactors, you could even start a mini version of a closed nuclear fuel cycle, with one or two plants using the waste of the others for fuel—nuclear “waste” becomes a valuable product. Carbon emissions would be zero tons per KW, number of Congolese child slaves mining cobalt, zero, number of unrecylable turbine blades, zero, .....
2 people like this.
Reply 34 - Posted by:
stablemoney 2/16/2021 7:23:10 AM (No. 697608)
In Houston, without power for 24 hours. Got up this morning. 13 pairs of socks on, 6 pairs of pants, 6 sweat shirts. About 10 degrees--inside. I am humorless with the green energy crowd.
1 person likes this.
Reply 35 - Posted by:
paral04 2/16/2021 9:39:29 AM (No. 697762)
So much for "Green Energy" Back to the drawing boards guys.
1 person likes this.
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