Texas Outages Put Reliability Of Renewable Energy In The Spotlight

Texas Outages Put Reliability Of Renewable Energy In The Spotlight

Everyone wants clean energy, but reliability is what really counts in a crisis. As renewably sourced energy captures a larger share of the power grid, outages become inevitable.

Renewable energy is great, but it just can't compete with traditional sources. Texas just became the poster child for the consequences of change that happens too rapidly.

Take wind power as an example; just ten years ago wind power accounted for under ten percent of electricity production in Texas. Now its share is approaching 25 percent, which seemed like a good thing until the current record breaking arctic blast came along. Freezing rain ahead of plunging temperatures has literally frozen some wind turbines solid, meaning there isn't enough electricity being produced at the very time when it's needed the most. Incidental reports coming out of Texas indicate that as many as half of Texan wind turbines may have been rendered temporarily inoperable by icy weather.

This is the problem with renewable energy; it isn't always there when the going gets tough. The ramifications of changing our current electric grid from carbon and nuclear based sources to wind, solar and other more environmentally and politically correct sources are not esoteric; they are real, consequential, and life