lpetrich
Contributor
BeNeDicT ArNoLd on Twitter: "@AOC @EdMarkey How would the green new deal’s increased push for wind and solar prevent this in the future? The graph below says you reject science and would make it worse. (pic link)" / Twitter
I don't see how the picture's chart supports that thesis, that wind and solar energy are dangerously unreliable in cold weather.
There was a bit of solar on 16 Feb, a bit more than in previous days, though wind energy contributed very little.
But there were big drops in natural gas, coal, and nuclear-energy generation. Natgas generation has a rather evident vulnerability, its pipelines, but that does not exist for coal and nuclear generation. So what affected them?
Coal is usually sent by train, and that is potentially vulnerable to track switches freezing. But full-scale railroading has often been done in great cold, like in Russia in the winter.
New railway in Siberia set to open linking Moscow with the coldest city in the world, Yakutsk | Daily Mail Online
Temperatures: -60 C / -76 F to +35 C / +95 F.
The Trans-Siberian Railroad: 9 Facts You Should Know - some parts get as cold as -62 C.
Also, coal is easy to store, unlike natgas.
Nuclear power? Nuclear Reactor Refueling - it's done every 1 to 2 years, and the reactor has to be shut down for replacing its old fuel with its new fuel.
That graph showed Texas's nuclear-reactor output as constant until it dropped some 20% on Feb 16. That's typical of nuclear reactors - run at constant output despite big fluctuations in electricity demand.
I don't see how the picture's chart supports that thesis, that wind and solar energy are dangerously unreliable in cold weather.
There was a bit of solar on 16 Feb, a bit more than in previous days, though wind energy contributed very little.
But there were big drops in natural gas, coal, and nuclear-energy generation. Natgas generation has a rather evident vulnerability, its pipelines, but that does not exist for coal and nuclear generation. So what affected them?
Coal is usually sent by train, and that is potentially vulnerable to track switches freezing. But full-scale railroading has often been done in great cold, like in Russia in the winter.
New railway in Siberia set to open linking Moscow with the coldest city in the world, Yakutsk | Daily Mail Online
Temperatures: -60 C / -76 F to +35 C / +95 F.
The Trans-Siberian Railroad: 9 Facts You Should Know - some parts get as cold as -62 C.
Also, coal is easy to store, unlike natgas.
Nuclear power? Nuclear Reactor Refueling - it's done every 1 to 2 years, and the reactor has to be shut down for replacing its old fuel with its new fuel.
That graph showed Texas's nuclear-reactor output as constant until it dropped some 20% on Feb 16. That's typical of nuclear reactors - run at constant output despite big fluctuations in electricity demand.