defrosters are ancient tech but may seem like cutting edge to the ignorant, hell you may even have one in your rear windshield. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...nd-turbines-texas-power-outages-b1802596.html
Heh, years ago from a Florida relative I bought a mid-1980s Mercury sedan that lived it's life in Florida. It had no rear defroster. What a nightmare as I was living in NY at the time. Every winter was a pain in the butt.
the engineers have to come up with a better wind turbine design. It has to function during extremely low temperature. The Russians are very good at designing equipment/processes to function at extremely low temperature.
Not my cup of tea (juice); but a quick Google claims TX is the #3 citrus producer in the U.S. It must not be that bad, because I'd expect a bigger jump than this. If the cold hangs around though.... Seems like $120 would be a safe bet. Not a lot of downside risk. For whatever that's worth. current temps:
In Texas, wind power generation overtook coal-fired generation in 2020 for the first time ever, with wind power now accounting for 25 percent of the Texas electricity generation. Natural gas-fired power generation is the leading source of electricity in Texas, with more than 45 percent share.
It is that bad, but Texas oranges don't have a big impact on the supply of orange juice. https://www.visitflorida.com/en-us/eat-drink/facts-about-florida-citrus-oranges.html
so, whoever said anything about coal in Texas? Sounds like the fossil fuel industry needs to go away if they can't deliver reliably and their main focus tight now is to spend money to smear the competition. Instead of spending that money on getting heat to people's homes. While ice has forced some turbines to shut down just as a brutal cold wave drives record electricity demand, that’s been the least significant factor in the blackouts, according to Dan Woodfin, a senior director for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which operates the state’s power grid. The main factors: Frozen instruments at natural gas, coal and even nuclear facilities, as well as limited supplies of natural gas, he said. “Natural gas pressure” in particular is one reason power is coming back slower than expected Tuesday, added Woodfin. “We’ve had some issues with pretty much every kind of generating capacity in the course of this multi-day event,” he said. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...s-s-power-woes
You completely misunderstand the facts here. A large percentage of energy is generated from "green sources". They all failed miserably. I am a huge proponent of green energy but we can't ignore the fact that those green energy sources, the precise way they are set up and the types chosen, failed badly in Texas. And the comments by Dan Woodfin only indicate that in addition, the fossil fuel energy generation technology sucks huge time in Texas. In Alaska and northern Canada hydro and natural gas powered generators work perfectly fine in the coldest of winter Sounds more like someone who completely fucked up in choosing the right technology to get the job done. So typical, morons sitting in American control centers who just are not qualified for the job.
By your numbers, 25% of the grid is on wind, of which half are affected, so no, they did not all fail miserably. So Texas's grid is down 12% capacity. Where's the other 88% of good old dyno primary? Why are public regulatory agencies lobbying for inflated pricing for the energy companies?