Weekly Climate And Energy News Roundup #444
The Week That Was: 2021-02-27 (February 27, 2021)
Brought to You by SEPP (
www.SEPP.org)
The Science and Environmental Policy Project
Quote of the Week: “For every problem, there is at least one solution that is simple, neat – and wrong.†‒ attributed variously to H.L. Mencken, Peter Drucker, Mark Twain, and others [H/t Richard Lawhern, ACSH]
Number of the Week: – 4 GW Short
THIS WEEK:
By Ken Haapala, President, Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP)
No Reserves Sir! Last week TWTW focused on the failure of utility operators in Texas and California to provide reliable electricity during extreme weather events, cold in Texas and heat in California. In Texas, the finger-pointing continues with no one willing to accept responsibility. As the “Planning Engineer†wrote in Climate Etc.. there are no market incentives for reliable capacity in Texas.
Independently, Donn Dears who predicts expanding blackouts in the US arising from poor policy decisions, Paul Homewood who analyzes energy issues in the UK, and Bill Peacock who has written extensively on Texas power issues, analyzed the data and came to similar conclusions: there was sufficient capacity in Texas to address the extreme weather event, but it was of the wrong type. It was nameplate, paper capacity, mainly in wind and solar rather than dispatchable, reliable capacity mainly in coal, gas, and nuclear. Promoters of wind and solar have done a great job in confusing the public into believing these two types of capacities are similar when they are not. Furthermore, over-reliance on just-in-time natural gas led to electricity shortages as demand for gas for heating increased dramatically and freeze-ups occurred at gas wells where water produced along with gas froze.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/03/01/weekly-climate-and-energy-news-roundup-444-2/
