I had a lot of articles on Texas here earlier this year. More than one opinion was presented. They helped increase readership by seven fold for the next two months, and page views have remained high. But enough is enough -- I can't read another Texas article, so I'll give you the bottom line:
The entire Texas energy infrastructure is not prepared for unusually cold weather.
They have never been prepared for unusually cold weather.
There is no indication they will ever be prepared for unusually cold weather.
That fact has caused temporary problems in many years so far:
Such as in 1989.
And in 2011, with 3.2 million Texans, who were ERCOT customers, facing rolling blackouts.
And in February 2021, with about 5 million Texans (out of 29 million) facing blackouts.
Why was 2021 worse than in 2011?
Because the weather was colder, and the cold weather lasted longer.
Also important: Windmill "nameplate" capacity had increased about ten fold from 2011 to 2021.
Consider my complex scientific formula for understanding windmills ... that so far has failed to earn a Nobel Prize:
The Texas cold weather risk keeps getting worse, for three reasons:
(1) No one winterizes the Texas energy infrastructure (beyond just the electricity power plants),
(2) Spare fossil fuel and nuclear capacity is roughly half the national average, and
(3) Financial incentives strongly favored investing in windmills, whose output is unreliable, unpredictable, and tends to be low in winter months. Sometimes near zero for an hour or two a week, for the whole state!
The primary goal of an electric grid is reliability. The least reliable source of electricity is the wind.
