Renewables Slow “Energy Transition” (It’s not easy being green)

“Replacing gasoline-powered cars with electric vehicles will increase demand for power … [but] Texas’ grid lacks the transmission capabilities…. And without more batteries to store power when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow, it will be difficult for renewables to become a stable source of electric generation.”

“The electric vehicle maker Canoo announced in late June it would build a large factory in Oklahoma instead of in North Texas, citing the Lone Star State’s unreliable energy infrastructure as one reason.”

– Houston Chronicle, July 5, 2021, B4.

Renewables cause “greenouts” by disappearing at the peak and wounding conventional (‘reliable’) generation otherwise.

And greenouts are putting electricity for transportation in doubt–and discouraging new business from relocating to PUCT/ERCOT’s Texas.

Read it for yourself: Shelby Webb in “Houston’s energy transition not likely to be smooth.”…

Happy 4th Weekend: Drive, Grill, Fireworks (continuing the great summer of CO2)

Ignore the climate alarmists and eco-snoops. Celebrate the traditions of July 4th this weekend with gusto!

Drive to a favorite place, grill outdoors to your heart’s desire, use plastic for convenience, keep the house cool and drinks cold, and watch the fireworks. It’s all CO2 fun!

Here are some photos for inspiration.

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Electricity Planning Quagmire: Marginal Cost Pricing & Renewables

So even though renewables can provide a benefit in lowering the overall clearing price for energy, there will come a point – if we have not already reached it – where there will be so many wind and solar resources bidding into the RTO markets that marginal clearing prices no longer benefit customers … [by making] dispatchable-on-demand generation resources needed for system reliability unable to survive economically. (Bernard McNamee, below)

A recent article at RealClear Energy by former FERC commissioner Bernard McNamee, “Why Marginal Pricing in Wholesale Electric Markets May Need Reform” (June 20, 2021) recognizes a problem with regulated pricing that results in a very inconvenient truth: renewable energy has blown up the neoclassical planning model for electricity in the Texas ISO (Independent System Operator). And it is hurting reliable generation in the RTO (Regional Transmission Organization) regions as we speak.…

Politicized History, Bad History

‘Ecocide’: The Climate Church Wants to Imprison Nonbelievers

The Institute for Energy Research: Formation and Early History

IHS-Texas: Forerunner to IER (for the record)

Population Bombed! (revisiting a modern classic)

Looters, Moochers, Parasites: ‘Green’ Energy (Remembering Ayn Rand)

Energy Books: Some Observations