[sdbob]

Just heard windmills in Texas are freezing up. Not producing electricity. Never thought or heard about this situation. Anyone in Texas awhere of this? Hope all are safe.

[Chief of the 60's]

I didn't know you could hear a windmill freeze!

[moneypit]

Originally Posted by sdbob

Just heard windmills in Texas are freezing up. Not producing electricity. Never thought or heard about this situation. Anyone in Texas awhere of this? Hope all are safe.

That's what I'm hearing, That and a shortage of natural gas.

[The Champ]

Evidently the wind turbines in Texas didn't have heaters installed on the blades like they do in our area. Our wind turbines are functioning just fine here and we just got above zero for the first time in 5 days.

Evidently the anti fossil fuel folks didn't realize that it can cold in Texas. This is a serious oversight because people are actually dying due to the power grid not having sufficient capacity.

[Torquewar]

Interesting issue, hmm . Within 20 miles and beyond we have hundreds and never really happens here. . Basically there are coatings that can be applied to the rotors to prevent ice buildup which will affect the efficiency of the unit. Also they basically have a big gear box which in turn spins a rotor etc. . Those units can be kept at at ideal operating conditions temperatures to prevent issues. Guess it depends on the supplier of the units and possible operating conditions to prevent the generator from a lock up condition.
Warmer geographical climates shouldn’t have issues but hey Mother Nature will throw a dirty spin on things.

[Steve C.]

Search and read "Texas' Power Grid Crumbles Under Cold Weather" . By John Timmer.
Very informative.


.

[72projectbird]

Funny how ours don't freeze up here.

It's pretty crazy how many people are freaking out over not having power while it's cold out. Welcome to what half the country deals with every year.

[daduck]

My wife has family in Houston.

2 of the 3 households have broken (frozen) water pipes (inside the house) because power was shut off by power company for 8-24 hours intentionally to avoid grid going down. No basements in Houston.... so when the pipe breaks (in the attic with the water heater) you get water gushing from the ceiling.
Now the latest is the water company is shutting off service for fear of flooding inside the houses after pipes break.

[Stuart]

From what I've read online:

"Experts say that many of Texas' power generators have not made those investments necessary to prevent disruptions to equipment since the state does not regularly experience extreme winter storms."

But also:

"...in reality, the lost wind power makes up only a fraction of the reduction in power-generating capacity that has brought outages to millions of Texans across the state during a major winter storm.

An official with the Electric Reliability Council of Texas said Tuesday afternoon that 16 gigawatts of renewable energy generation, mostly wind generation, was offline. Nearly double that, 30 gigawatts, had been lost from thermal sources, which includes gas, coal and nuclear energy."

[77 TRASHCAN]

Originally Posted by 72projectbird

Funny how ours don't freeze up here.

It's pretty crazy how many people are freaking out over not having power while it's cold out. Welcome to what half the country deals with every year.

Maybe yours are just used to the cold, being up north...

[1965gp]

I live in Houston. My wife just said the she thinks we are the only family on my daughters cheer team that still has power. Our power flashed yesterday but other than that we have been very lucky.

I have a friend in Dallas that has been out of power for 37 hours and said it’s 43 deg in his house.

I’ve heard about our grid having problems, wasn’t maintained, etc.... remember we havent had rolling blackouts here.....ever. We have people moving here at an astounding rate and currently can accommodate anyone that wants to come here.

I think this is a once every 40 years situation and it probably doesn’t make sense to have heated windmills, just like it doesn’t make sense to maintain a fleet of snow plows. No one could have predicted this.

[Scarebird]

Originally Posted by 1965gp

...I think this is a once every 40 years situation and it probably doesn’t make sense to have heated windmills, just like it doesn’t make sense to maintain a fleet of snow plows. No one could have predicted this.

I think you are wrong here.

[1965gp]

Do you think this will be a more common occurrence?

[Scarebird]

Yes. Even in the last 20 years I have noticed the weather getting more vicious. We need to build for it since we are doing little to stop it.

[ponyakr]

Somebody has probably already mentioned this, somewhere on the site, but, what happened to global warming ?

[Scarebird]

It is still here - just a different, more accurate name.

Seems our friend the Polar Vortex went for a stroll to the Midwest when the jet stream weakened this weekend.

[johnta1]

It's still here, just redistributed.
Florida had a few days of record highs this past week. Probably next week also.

[Wick]

Weather is always changing, arrogant to think you can change it with money. Remember glaciers covered huge parts of the US at one time, long before the internal combustion.

[The Champ]

Originally Posted by 1965gp

I think this is a once every 40 years situation and it probably doesn’t make sense to have heated windmills, just like it doesn’t make sense to maintain a fleet of snow plows. No one could have predicted this.

40 years ago, Texas wasn't depending on wind turbines for much (if any) of their electrical grid. 40 years ago, Texas didn't have the electrical demands they do today.

The average January low temp in Dallas (relative center of Texas) is 36 degrees. So it isn't unusual to have temps at or below freezing.

Top 10 record lows in Dallas:

Rank Temperature Date
1 -8 Feb 12, 1899
2 -2 Jan 31, 1949
3
(tie) -1 Dec 23, 1989
-1 Jan 18, 1930
5
(tie) 1 Jan 12, 1912
1 Feb 13, 1905
7
(tie) 2 Feb 8, 1933
2 Jan 17, 1930
9 3 Dec 22, 1989
10
(tie) 4 Jan 14, 1964
4 Jan 4, 1947
4 Jan 12, 1918
4 Jan 11, 1918
4 Jan 3, 1911
4 Feb 13, 1899

Those top 10 record lows occurred between 1899 and 1989 and occurred in 7 different decades. It just isn't that unusual for below freezing temps in Texas to occur.

When you are counting on wind and the sun for any part of your electric grid, one needs to understand that wind and the sun are not reliable sources. They require adequate backup sources for when the wind doesn't blow, the sun doesn't shine or when weather just doesn't cooperate in general.

[Chief of the 60's]

So much for "Green Energy"