During several days of the heat wave this summer … ERCOT was obliged to request that Texans cut back on their use of electricity during the late afternoon and early evening hours [to avoid blackouts]
The problem is that Texas has invested heavily in wind and solar power… [and] during several days in August, the wind was not blowing enough for Texas’s wind farms to operate at optimal capacity. At the same time, as the sun went down, Texas’s solar arrays gradually stopped providing power as well.
TX is in a unique place since their grid is not interconnected.
Or maybe Texas could get its grid connected to the nearby grids so that dips like this are less of an issue.
Orrrrrr both! As well as an upgrade to all grids’ infrastructure which has been over-due for generations.
Whoa boy no. We don’t need those chucklefucks building a bunch nuclear anything and then not maintaining them. They let the issues with winter weather happen with warning and historical periodical events being known. They need to hook up to the national grid and have as little generation in their state as possible.
Sure, it just seems like a weird lack of imagination to jump straight to building expensive, difficult to maintain infrastructure that takes a really long time to build, when building transmission lines and connecting to the other grids would be faster, likely cheaper, need less attention to detail, and would make for a more fault tolerant grid.
The fix for Texas is to stop acting like Texas, which is challenge level: IMPOSSIBLE.
Regulation to ensure the quality of life for its residents would help a great many things, however greed and hubris often get in the way.
Wow this is a bad idea of bad ideas right here. They don’t even care about their current infrastructure!
ERCOT gonna try to save a few bucks in cutting staff and maintenance at a NUCLEAR POWER PLANT now.
Yeehaw or something!
Texas has an excess of energy production. The current grid just can’t handle it. Making more electricity isn’t going to solve the problem.
Or you know, rooftop solar probably.
Maybe. If done right it can be safe. Do we trust them to get it right when they can’t even figure out how to run their current grid?
In 20 years when the plant’s finished and 100% over budget maybe.
Do we really want to make Texas a nuclear power?
Texas already has two nuclear power plants.
And you already have zero sense of humors.
At this point maybe we should spin off a new uniformed service from the navy nukies. The Uniformed Nuclear Energy Corps. Federally run nuclear power!
In the interim, build some generator ships to supplement any city with a port.
One of the handy features of battery storage as well as renewables is the short time between saying go to the first kWh moved. Meanwhile building a nuclear plant is damn near planting a tree you’ll never lie in the shade of. It helps a problem you’ll have in 20+ years, Texas has problems now.
Also, their problem is best solved by connecting their grid. They’re trying to add intermittency with baseload, those are two different things.
Texas doesn’t have enough smart people to run one of those though
Lol funny you say it cause one of the “dumbest” parts of Texas is where they’re actively running one
Nuclear is the way to go.
Not for a state that can’t be bothered to take care of even the current infrastructure.
