Michael Shellenberger on the Texas blackouts

It was not the case that Texas’ energy sources failed equally. During the four days of blackouts, February 15th to 18th, the performance, as represented by capacity factors, of nuclear, natural gas, and wind turbines were 79%, 47%, and 14%, respectively. 

But because the electricity grid requires absolute moment-to-moment continuity in power supply in exact balance with demand, we should look at each power source’s lowest hourly performance during the four days of blackouts, which were 73%, 40%, and 2% of nuclear, natural gas, and wind turbines, respectively.

~ Michael Shellenberger, "Renewable Energy Boom Risks More Blackouts Without Adequate Investment In Grid Reliability," Forbes, April 20, 2021

ZeroHedge on solar and wind power and future blackouts

Affordability and reliability are the two things good energy sources need to be.  Solar and wind—unlike hydropower, which is also a renewable source—can only be one of these two things, and that's if there is no storage included.  They can be affordable, as we are often reminded.  Yet, sadly, they cannot be reliable.

This means that the more billions are poured into boosting renewable capacity, the greater the risk of further blackouts.  Perhaps at some point, if wind and solar become the main sources of electricity, authorities will need to institute planned outages.

~ ZeroHedge.com, "The Ugly Truth About Renewable Power," April 30, 2021