The scam continues: Why wind turbines are being re-powered at 10-years

[John_Conrad]

Potential energy has many forms, such as nuclear, batteries, fossil fuels, etc. The best battery IMHO is that contained in the atom. The next viable batteries are fossil fuels in terms of liquid fuels and gaseous products.

Both nuclear and fossil fuels have the highest energy densities which many seem to forget.

Until practical Fusion energy appears, those improved Fission reactors, especially the distributed and breeder types, are the best bet for satisfying the increased electrical energy demands.

Mola can you expand on what you mean by "The next viable batteries are fossil fuels in terms of liquid fuels and gaseous products"? Are you referring to biomass fuels?
I am wondering how we would get there because of the challenge of carbon and hydrogen in fossil fuels.
sincerely,
John

 

[MolaKule]

Mola can you expand on what you mean by "The next viable batteries are fossil fuels in terms of liquid fuels and gaseous products"? Are you referring to biomass fuels?
I am wondering how we would get there because of the challenge of carbon and hydrogen in fossil fuels.
sincerely,
John

That was mostly "tongue-in-cheek" and a bit of sarcasm.

My main point was that fuels such as fossil liquid fuels and nuclear fuels, those with the greatest energy densities, are the most useful and practical.

 

[4WD]

That was mostly "tongue-in-cheek" and a bit of sarcasm.

My main point was that fuels such as fossil liquid fuels and nuclear fuels, those with the greatest energy densities, are the most useful and practical.

Indeed - Direct heat from natural gas remains a stalwart in efficiency …

 

[Lapham3]

Years ago, I saw that a medium sized wind generator was being locally installed. When it was operational it seemed to do as designed, However as it got colder, I noticed that it wasn't turning anymore. Later, the info was that it was a used unit from a southern state. The problem was similar to using a 15-50 oil that didn't work well in Minnesota winters. The proper gear lube was replaced in the spring and it then operated normally year around. I have flown over the SW Minn Buffalo Ridge and the many generators operating. Also, in NW Iowa

 

[yowps3]

Just follow the money trail to find the answers.b

 

[Brons2]

Sorry I don't believe anything coming out of China regarding clean energy, or anything else for that matter. They're not our friend! In fact I don't believe what I hear coming out of the US regarding it either. All I know is these wind turbines are not what they're cracked up to be. Texas proved that a couple of years back, and the nightmare to marine life has just begun.

This is an outright lie. Wind and Solar were not the cause of the February 2021 event. Natural Gas generation was, it consistently ran 50% under forecast during the event. The wellheads froze up. But what do I know, I only live here.

ERCOT Texas grid fuel mix, yesterday approximately 5:24PM CDT:

 

[demarpaint]

This is an outright lie. Wind and Solar were not the cause of the February 2021 event. Natural Gas generation was, it consistently ran 50% under forecast during the event. The wellheads froze up. But what do I know, I only live here.

ERCOT Texas grid fuel mix, yesterday approximately 5:24PM CDT:

View attachment 151389

Lie? I don't appreciate being called a liar. I guess it depends on where the news comes from. https://www.statesman.com/story/new...nes-hampering-electric-generation/4483230001/ TV here showed pictures of frozen turbines. Oh and FTR all I said was wind and solar wasn't what it was cracked up to be. Nothing more than that.

 

[Pew]

I guess it depends on where the news comes from. https://www.statesman.com/story/new...nes-hampering-electric-generation/4483230001/ TV here showed pictures of frozen turbines. Oh and FTR all is said was wind and solar wasn't what it was cracked up to be. Nothing more than that.

Here's a YT video I posted in a different thread from a Civil engineer going over what happened to the power grid with no political references. I really like his other videos too, he doesn't raise a finger towards politics.

In short, 15GW of gas generation went offline in 8 hours. Nuclear was not present for 3 days as it was not built for the weather that you and I go through every winter. Wind and coal were the least affected.



Here's a snip from the video (note: graph shows generation capacity that is out):

 

[demarpaint]

Here's a YT video I posted in a different thread from a Civil engineer going over what happened to the power grid with no political references. I really like his other videos too, he doesn't raise a finger towards politics.

In short, 15GW of gas generation went offline in 8 hours. Nuclear was not present for 3 days as it was not built for the weather that you and I go through every winter. Wind and coal were the least affected.



Here's a snip from the video (note: graph shows generation capacity that is out):
View attachment 151394

Many things went wrong, agreed. I commented about wind and solar in my post, and China not being our friend, that's it. Wind shut down due to ice, solar covered with snow. I made no reference to anything else. We could call it a perfect storm, and learn from it.

 

[Pew]

Many things went wrong, agreed. I commented about wind and solar in my post, and China not being our friend, that's it. Wind shut down due to ice, solar covered with snow. I made no reference to anything else. We could call it a perfect storm, and learn from it.

Sorry I should have gone further back and read your post; I only started on this page.

 

[demarpaint]

Sorry I should have gone further back and read your post; I only started on this page.

No problem, and you didn't call me a liar. So it's all good.

 

[Brons2]

Lie? I don't appreciate being called a liar. I guess it depends on where the news comes from. https://www.statesman.com/story/new...nes-hampering-electric-generation/4483230001/ TV here showed pictures of frozen turbines. Oh and FTR all I said was wind and solar wasn't what it was cracked up to be. Nothing more than that.

The lies are not yours, they're other people's lies. Petroleum advocates immediately blamed wind and solar when stuff started going sideways, whether it was true or not. If you look at the hard data at the time, wind and solar actually exceeded expectations for the event where gas and coal fell far short. Unfortunately the data has been taken off of ERCOT's website, probably for political sensitivites of the fossil fuel industry. They are major political donors in Texas.

BTW...Thanks Pew. Regarding nuclear, I believe it was offline for maintenance because winter is typically over by mid-February in most of the southern half of Texas. February 2021 had other ideas.

 

[demarpaint]

The lies are not yours, they're other people's lies. Petroleum advocates immediately blamed wind and solar when stuff started going sideways, whether it was true or not. If you look at the hard data at the time, wind and solar actually exceeded expectations for the event where gas and coal fell far short. Unfortunately the data has been taken off of ERCOT's website, probably for political sensitivites of the fossil fuel industry. They are major political donors in Texas.

BTW...Thanks Pew. Regarding nuclear, I believe it was offline for maintenance because winter is typically over by mid-February in most of the southern half of Texas. February 2021 had other ideas.

Once again: Many things went wrong, agreed. I commented about wind and solar in my post, and China not being our friend, that's it. Wind shut down due to ice, solar covered with snow. I made no reference to anything else. We could call it a perfect storm, and learn from it.

Edit: OT slightly. Years ago during Sandy a local community learned about a disadvantage to having underground power lines, and transformers on concrete slabs. The community was flooded, I had customers with fish swimming in their living rooms, in water 4' deep in the houses. They were without power longer than anyone else. Streets had to be ripped up to replace power lines and every transformer was destroyed because they were partially submerged. There were no lessons learned there. To be honest power lines were replaced under ground again, and the transformers are on slabs of concrete once again. The logic, it was a 100 year storm.

 

[John_Conrad]

wellheads should have been winterized period to what ever level of cold is expected, this is poor planning.

 

[brianl703]

To be honest power lines were replaced under ground again

Hopefully this time in conduit, so streets don't need to be ripped up for replacement.

 

[demarpaint]

Hopefully this time in conduit, so streets don't need to be ripped up for replacement.

Hopefully

 

[OVERKILL]

Nuclear was not present for 3 days as it was not built for the weather that you and I go through every winter.
View attachment 151394

The lowest nuclear got was 75%, this is clearly represented in the capacity out of service graph where STP-1 went down, and then came back. The graph also shows that wind was the 2nd most affected source, not least affected.

 

[Pew]

The lowest nuclear got was 75%, this is clearly represented in the capacity out of service graph where STP-1 went down, and then came back. The graph also shows that wind was the 2nd most affected source, not least affected.

I'm an idiot, I read the nuclear line as power generation and not power out - of course after I bolded the out in parenthesis.

 

[OVERKILL]

The lies are not yours, they're other people's lies. Petroleum advocates immediately blamed wind and solar when stuff started going sideways, whether it was true or not. If you look at the hard data at the time, wind and solar actually exceeded expectations for the event where gas and coal fell far short. Unfortunately the data has been taken off of ERCOT's website, probably for political sensitivites of the fossil fuel industry. They are major political donors in Texas.

I posted the data in the other thread I linked earlier, including the tables from ERCOT. Wind's share of the outage was low because not very much of it was expected to show up in the first place. The whole thing hinged on gas and gas didn't show up.

BTW...Thanks Pew. Regarding nuclear, I believe it was offline for maintenance because winter is typically over by mid-February in most of the southern half of Texas. February 2021 had other ideas.

The lowest nuclear got was 75%. All four units were online, STP-1 went down due to a sensor line freezing and eventually was brought back.

 

[Brons2]

I posted the data in the other thread I linked earlier, including the tables from ERCOT. Wind's share of the outage was low because not very much of it was expected to show up in the first place. The whole thing hinged on gas and gas didn't show up.

The lowest nuclear got was 75%. All four units were online, STP-1 went down due to a sensor line freezing and eventually was brought back.

Yes, the forecast for Wind was not very high to begin with, but a lot of people down here blamed it anyway, mainly fossil fuel advocates, which given the large amount of "energy" (cough petroleum) companies down here, is a pretty vocifierous community. I didn't see your other post, when these threads get to 5 more pages it can be hard to find one single post.

Thanks for the correction on the nuclear. I recalled incorrectly about what was under maintenance at the time.