July's Required Reading!

We haven't done a "required reading" in a couple of months because I don't want to waste your time unless the story is important and succinct. 

Here is a story that is vital to America and its energy supplies. Three highlights...

• CBS News Texas posted an article to their website describing how wind turbines struggle to produce enough electricity during heat waves, due to the natural effect of lower wind speeds during these events. This is true, and it highlights one of the biggest problems renewable sources face when they are supposed to make up a greater and greater share of electricity production. That is, they are highly weather dependent and often fail under unideal conditions.

• The expert CBS interviewed for the post, Dr. Todd Griffith of the Wind Energy Center at UT Dallas admitted that when the wind doesn’t blow, “we need to compensate for that with these other sources…namely, natural gas and coal sources and nuclear. ”This is true, and it doesn’t seem to make much sense to intentionally add unreliable electricity generation to the grid which threaten consumers with power shortages in the first place. In the case of Texas, these failures tend happen during the highest electricity demand time of year, summer, when air conditioning is needed most.

• Solar power also suffers under high temperatures. Temperatures over 25°C begin to cause a problem for solar panels, as photovoltaic cells that are overheated experience a voltage drop, which leads to a decline in power output...   Note: 25° C = 78° F.

Of course, you've read about those issues over and over on this blog and elsewhere. If we need to pay for nuclear and gas to "compensate" for wind and solar's high level of unreliability, the immediate question becomes:

Why do we want to install unreliable wind and solar energy to begin with?

Big Climate solar and, especially wind, because if various reports are to believed there is a high level of associated graft. I can say from personal experience the wind lobby is extremely aggressive with a "take no prisoners" approach.

Big Climate and its political allies love electricity because it is a tool for their authoritarian tendencies. If you are forced to purchase an electric car, an electric stove, electric home heating, what happens if the electricity to you and your home is cut off?

Please read the entire article!