As Texas freezes in the dark, Ted Cruz takes his family to Cancun

[NightTrain]

Actually, renewables had little to do with the problems. Most of the outages were due to issues with natural gas production. And, because of deregulation, they are unable to import power from other states when they need it most. it's a messed up situation all the way around..

How the Texas power grid failed and what could stop it from happening again

That's weird... I read that it was because the wind turbines iced up and failed - that's a huge problem up here.

[Gunny]

That's weird... I read that it was because the wind turbines iced up and failed - that's a huge problem up here.

It's both, but the natural gas story pops up in the MSM every time. There are a lot of reasons. What you said is correct: They got sold on these windmills and they failed. Add to that, lefties fleeing their dead, blue states and bringing their bad habits with them overcrowding our cities and putting too much burden on the infrastructure.

I will add that pre-windmill/locust days, we had no failures of this magnitude. This one's been the worst in awhile, but we get hit about every 10-15 years with a storm like this. In perspective, when I lived in DC, KS and IL, this storm might have closed the schools early one day. That would be the second biggest problem I an think of.

We aren't prepared for this from the personal level up. This is mostly info and to stuff a rag in Gabby's mouth who is more worried about what our Senator is doing than any of us are. I can tell you right now from living there as well, this storm would have had all those So Californians crying their privileged, socialist ass off. They are no more prepared to deal with it than we are.

Like I said, about every 10-15 years. Nobody's going to prepare for that. That's a lot of eyesore, taking up space equipment and time and effort for maintenance for 5 days every 13 years (I remember the last one 13 years ago). The people that had stuff mostly busted out their hurricane gear.

We spend 9-10 months a year trying to beat the heat. I'm up at PT at 0500 so I can be done and back in the AC by the time it hits 95-100. Staying out of the heat here is an occupation. And we've got all the crap for it. Last week I was in shorts and sandals sitting in the sun. Looks like I will be next week as well. "Winter" here is average 50s-60s at night and 50s-70s during the day. I tossed my snow boots about 3 years ago for taking up space.

So as much as anything else, this is as much a Mother Nature happens thing as anything else. Complacency at all levels. And yes, another failed, green experiment the left will turn themselves inside out to lie and cover up and try to put lipstick on just made it worse.

Best they can do? Keep tabs on Ted Cruz. Losers

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[NightTrain]

I suspect that the Natural Gas discussion is a red herring. Push a narrative that the evil petroleum industry is at least partially to blame.

What I do know from personal experience is that wind turbines fail when they ice up, and it's not for the reason most people think. Yes, they are much less efficient when coated with ice, but the real problem is because it unbalances the blades. Ice is never evenly distributed on those blades. So the end result is that they will literally rip themselves apart, self destructing because of the massive imbalance. Most of them have a sensor that detects this and it shunts - locking it until someone can get out there or keep it inoperable until it melts when it warms up.

The State of Alaska has an experimental WindGen project on Shuyak Island off Kodiak. Every year they install $100k worth of windmill, and every October the first good storm off the Gulf destroys it and deposits the pieces in the valley below. Flying over it in a helicopter, it looks like some kind of windmill graveyard down below.

They solved this icing problem on Kodiak. There's a bunch of monster wind turbines (100' blades) on Pillar Mountain above Kodiak, and an international effort was made by a lot of northern countries - because if you can make them work in Kodiak, they'll work anywhere because it's out in the Gulf of Alaska and the storms are second to none. Icing is the standard, not the exception.

They figured it out by installing heating elements into the blades, and when an imbalance is detected (which would be from icing), those elements are energized and the blades shed the ice load. It works great.

Understandably, Texas would not be interested in that expense because of the infrequent nature of that particular problem. I get it. But relying on those WindGens with no Plan B in place is the height of stupidity. And you know it was brought up more than a few times - the people running that infrastructure are guilty of reckless incompetence of the highest order.

[Gunny]

I suspect that the Natural Gas discussion is a red herring. Push a narrative that the evil petroleum industry is at least partially to blame.

What I do know from personal experience is that wind turbines fail when they ice up, and it's not for the reason most people think. Yes, they are much less efficient when coated with ice, but the real problem is because it unbalances the blades. Ice is never evenly distributed on those blades. So the end result is that they will literally rip themselves apart, self destructing because of the massive imbalance. Most of them have a sensor that detects this and it shunts - locking it until someone can get out there or keep it inoperable until it melts when it warms up.

The State of Alaska has an experimental WindGen project on Shuyak Island off Kodiak. Every year they install $100k worth of windmill, and every October the first good storm off the Gulf destroys it and deposits the pieces in the valley below. Flying over it in a helicopter, it looks like some kind of windmill graveyard down below.

They solved this icing problem on Kodiak. There's a bunch of monster wind turbines (100' blades) on Pillar Mountain above Kodiak, and an international effort was made by a lot of northern countries - because if you can make them work in Kodiak, they'll work anywhere because it's out in the Gulf of Alaska and the storms are second to none. Icing is the standard, not the exception.

They figured it out by installing heating elements into the blades, and when an imbalance is detected (which would be from icing), those elements are energized and the blades shed the ice load. It works great.

Understandably, Texas would not be interested in that expense because of the infrequent nature of that particular problem. I get it. But relying on those WindGens with no Plan B in place is the height of stupidity. And you know it was brought up more than a few times - the people running that infrastructure are guilty of reckless incompetence of the highest order.

The natural gas argument IS a red herring.

I did not put two and to together and think about the technical reason for the windmills failing. I wasn't thinking prop-driven airplanes which used to have the same problem way back when. Makes perfect sense.

Another part of the problem is we don't get to keep/store our own energy which is why I've been high and to the right about these eyesores blotting our landscape from the beginning. Moot issue at this point as the windmills failed, but still an issue with me. I guess the 10th Amendment everyone likes to sling around carelessly doesn't apply to our oil and/or power.

If we ever have a serious discussion about secession, I'll be in attendance.