As millions of people in Texas lost heat and electricity during a historic cold earlier this week, the future of renewable energy in the big, growing state and elsewhere took new control, aided by images of wind turbines with ice.
But blaming renewable energy at a time when they need more, not less, of the nation’s energy system to modernize is short-sighted, especially because the climate is likely to be more extreme due to climate change, they said. energy analysts.
Read: Millions in Texas still without energy in the middle of cold
For starters, the blame for the Texas power crisis, at least according to first readings by Texas utility companies officials, and backed by analysts, was multiple. Only this should boost the search for a diverse energy portfolio and an up-to-date network to help the U.S. control emissions that contribute to global warming and keep energy relatively economical, especially for vulnerable communities.
“The dangerous situations in Texas and Oklahoma underscore the urgency of the climate crisis and the need to make transformative investments in our country’s infrastructure, including the power grid,” said Lori Lodes, executive director of Climate Power. Climate Power, initially called Climate Power 2020 because of its focus on the 2020 election, is a political project created by the Center for American Progress Action Fund, the League of Conservation Voters, and the Sierra Club.
Politicians and industry leaders loyal to fossil fuels this week defended renewable energy by taking advantage of the fact that wind is a source of energy, like solar, which requires planning for intermittent generation. Meaning: It’s not entirely reliable, all the time.
They doubled their claim that fuel sources, including natural gas, will have to come alongside wind, solar, nuclear and other options, even when the United States faces climate change and when states , including Texas, adopt more renewable sources.
Without natural gas NG00,
according to the industry, the power grid will run the risk of more frequent blackouts such as those affecting Texas and other mostly plain states. The continued power outages in California last summer were concentrated in part in the early withdrawal of gas plants, as the state followed a clean energy agenda. In fact, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz saw his criticism of Twitter resurface over California this week, as more than 4 million Texans were left powerless.
So what source was behind the mess in Texas?
“The crisis in Texas was not caused by the state’s renewable energy industry. The biggest generation loss came from gas-fired power plants, with wind farms falling far behind, ”said Ed Crooks, vice president of America, with Wood Mackenzie.
The use of natural gas for residential heating competes with its use in electricity generation, and this use spread to typically warm Texas. The deficit can be attributed to extreme weather conditions or it may be the first sign that winter needs to be planned for a mix of fossil and renewable fuels.
Texas utilities, which rely primarily on natural gas and wind year-round, would have already reduced their pre-storm wind power planning, as they usually do in the winter. Summer is the maximum energy consumption and wind only accounts for 25% of the state’s energy mix during the winter. Wind power during the ice storm reached what is normally required at this time of year, officials suggested. Most outages occurred in portions of the Texas grid that depend on natural gas, coal, and nuclear, sources that together account for more than two-thirds of winter power generation.
The cold was unique, but so is the Texas utility network.
Almost all of Texas operates as a single power grid not integrated with the surrounding states. This network is run by the Texas Electric Reliability Council, ERCOT, a non-profit organization controlled by the state legislature and free from national regulations. At its best, it creates big price changes in both directions; at the worst times, like this week, homes and businesses get dark and cold.
Read: Texas energy markets are in chaos. Here are two actions to see
The American Gas Association said dissecting exactly what failed in Texas during the freeze and what contributions from that experience could inform any change in the use of natural gas for electricity in the future will take longer.
AGA national data showed that as the cold covered much of the nation, on February 14, 151.7 billion cubic feet (Bcf) of natural gas was delivered to the United States and on February 15, while 149.8 Bcf was delivered on 15 February. the all-day delivery day and the two days combined set the record for the highest demand over a two-day period. The group represents about 200 local energy companies, including some in Texas, that supply natural gas to utility companies. Ultimately, some 71 million U.S. customers use gas from the companies represented by AGA.
The debate in the coming days, weeks and months “should include how we use and value the role the system plays in the coldest days of the year … given the disruption and severe weather events”, said Richard Meyer, director general of energy markets, analysis and standards with the AGA.
Read: The U.S. freeze causes a rise in natural gas and uranium prices are melting
Renewables also need a rethink.
“Energy loss has been a warning of the problems that will arise as the proportion of renewable generation in the grid increases,” Crooks of Wood Mackenzie said.
Generation, transmission and distribution equipment and the design of the electricity market will be even more important to meet the challenges created by a heavy network of renewables.
“Distributed resources, including storage and demand response, will also have to play a more important role. Texas ’renewable capacity should grow more than tenfold to provide the same amount of energy produced by the fossil fuel fleet on Monday, even at reduced levels,” Wood Mackenzie analysts said.
Because this would be excessive at certain times of the year, storage will be of great importance, including batteries, hydrogen, or other technology.
Wade Scheur, director of research for the Americas at Wood MacKenzie, said there are some Texas-specific lessons. On the one hand, the state has several large population centers, but renewable energy clusters are far from major cities and require more miles of potentially vulnerable transmission lines.
And there is no winter reliability mandate for the public utility system, as, for example, in other parts of the US regulated
“There are only a few incentives for renewable energy, or even other sources, to increase capacity. Many energy sources remain seasonally stabilized from October to May, ”said Scheur. “Perhaps the ability and incentives to be able to produce better in the winter need additional consideration.”
This could be true in Texas and elsewhere. Climate-related power outages are increasing in the United States as climate change produces more extreme storms and temperature changes, writes energy resources professor Michael Webber of the University of Texas at Austin, in a comment.
“It is possible that states that design their buildings and infrastructure for a hot climate will need to plan more chills and that cold states may expect more heat waves,” he said. “As conditions show in Texas, there’s no time to waste in preparing more for the weather.”