Wind turbines helped to keep the lights turned on (Texas)

[wtmusic]

"The wind hasn’t provided much relief to Texans during the recent stretch of a 100-plus degree days, but it has helped to keep air-conditioners humming.

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Most of Texas’ wind farms, located in West Texas, reach their peak output in the evening, when the winds blow hardest. They do little for the state’s needs during the hottest afternoon hours and are so far removed from the areas of heaviest demand that they often have little to no impact. But the growing number of wind projects along Texas’ coast has helped boost wind’s contribution during peak summer hours since coastal winds tend to pickup in the afternoons.

Robert Bryce, an Austin-based author who has been outspoken in his criticism of wind power, says wind power doesn’t do enough to contribute to the state’s power needs. He notes that wind’s variability and the poor peak-day output from the West Texas wind farms means ERCOT only counts 8.7 percent of the installed wind capability toward its total reserves. 'Yes, the coastal turbines are doing better than the inland turbines, but coastal turbines face much more resistance from local residents than ones that are located near Big Spring or Sweetwater,' Bryce said, as residents don’t like having the 450 foot-high towers blocking their coastal views."

http://fuelfix.com/blog/2011/08/10/wind-turbines-helped-to-keep-the-lights-turned-on/

[OKIsItJustMe]

1. Who was it who posted…

…this just a few days ago?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=115&topic_id=307333&mesg_id=307333

[FBaggins]

3. The two appear consistent.

The bulk of TX's wind generation peaks out of phase with the peak demands.

Sounds like things are improving however... but much of that is weather. Part and parcel of variable generation.

[wtmusic]

5. Not at all. This is a black and white issue, and I've contradicted myself.

I should be ashamed. :D

[bananas]

2. Sourcewatch on wingnut wind critic Robert Bryce: ALEC, Manhattan Institute, etc

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Robert_Bryce

Robert Bryce is a senior fellow withe the Center for Energy Policy and the Environment at the Manhattan Institute, a conservative U.S. think tank. A biographical note states that he has "has written about the energy business for two decades" and that since 2005 "he has served as the managing editor of Energy Tribune, an online publication that focuses on the global energy sector."<1>

Contents
1 Ties to the American Legislative Exchange Council
2 Critic of Carbon Capture and Storage
3 Articles and resources
3.1 References
3.2 Related SourceWatch articles
3.3 External resources
3.4 External articles


Ties to the American Legislative Exchange Council

Bryce was a featured speaker at the 2011 American Legislative Exchange Council Annual Meeting, at a Workshop titled "Unconventional Revolution: How Technological Advancements Have Transformed Energy Production in the United States." The panel served as advocacy for the controversial drilling process for natural gas, called fracking.<2>

ALEC is not a lobby; it is not a front group. It is much more powerful than that. Through ALEC, behind closed doors, corporations hand state legislators the changes to the law they desire that directly benefit their bottom line. Along with legislators, corporations have membership in ALEC. Corporations sit on all nine ALEC task forces and vote with legislators to approve “model” bills. They have their own corporate governing board which meets jointly with the legislative board. (ALEC says that corporations do not vote on the board.) They fund almost all of ALEC's operations. Participating legislators, overwhelmingly conservative Republicans, then bring those proposals home and introduce them in statehouses across the land as their own brilliant ideas and important public policy innovations—without disclosing that corporations crafted and voted on the bills. ALEC boasts that it has over 1,000 of these bills introduced by legislative members every year, with one in every five of them enacted into law. ALEC describes itself as a “unique,” “unparalleled” and “unmatched” organization. It might be right. It is as if a state legislature had been reconstituted, yet corporations had pushed the people out the door. Learn more at ALECexposed.org.

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[Kolesar]

4. (Your vote: -1)