The 2021 Texas Cold Wave Catastrophe Still Being Debated

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Believe it or not, the causes of the catastrophic cold wave (more than 200 died) that began Valentine's Day 2021 in Texas are still being debated. Not up for debate is that at least 210 people died. 

The causes are actually known pretty well but political correctness prevents them from being clearly stated. The newest report is better than the previous versions but still suffers from not stating the following clearly:
  • Natural gas energy didn't "fail," per se. The human operators stupidly turned off the power to the gas wells to "conserve" electricity. 
  • Wind energy is often called "nondispatchable." That is electric utility-speak for "unreliable." 
  • There is a lot of talk about "winterization" of wind turbines as is done in the northern United States. But, the problem the night of the 15th -- when things when from bad to tragic very quickly -- the winds were calm. Wind power dropped to 1% of "name plate" output (name plate is every turbine working perfectly). No amount of winterization can fix calm winds. It is an absolute meteorological fact that winds tend to be calm or nearly calm when it is extremely hot and extremely cold -- in other words, when electricity is needed the most.
With all of that, you can find the important parts of the report, with expert commentary, here. 

Addition: Some simplified information on the disaster that are wind and solar. 

Would anyone sane buy a car costing 5 – 10 times the normal price that only works one day in five, when you never know which day that might be ?  And then insist that its technology is used to power the whole economy.

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