It seems Texas windmills are freezing up due to the cold adding to the shortage in electricity. It would seem global warming should then be good for Texas in the future as there would be fewer ice storms. This is all very confusing.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/16/business/texas-power-energy-nightmare/index.html
It should not be confusing. Texas is hot in the summer, so they need to have a robust electricity grid to power all those air conditioners running full blast all the time. In the face of global warming, Texas will need to upgrade its grid to handle more and bigger air conditioners running more days in the year.
Idiots like Tucker Carlson say the current problem is that the windmills are frozen. That is because the windmill operators did not invest in windmill heaters like they do in places like Denmark. So they saved some money on windmill heaters, and are screwed when it gets really cold. Fortunately, it doesn't get really cold that often. A bigger problem is that they can't generate electricity from natural gas, which supplies 40% of the electricity, because the natural gas is frozen at the rig and in the pipelines. Maybe to save money they didn't install heaters or insulation or whatever. What about nuclear? Well, I read somewhere in the past day or two that they can't run nuclear power plants because they need water for cooling and it is all frozen. Seems they elected to skimp on the heaters there too. Not paying for all these heaters and insulation and whatever has the benefit of lower electricity prices most of the time. The trade off is that when it gets really cold nothing works and you are going to freeze your ass off. This is no different than you and your backup generator. You don't want to spend the money for something you are going to rarely use. Unfortunately, there are not enough chalets in the Poconos to accommodate all the residents of Texas without electricity. Besides, unlike Texas, they would probably have to wear masks, and that's a non-starter.
My electricity goes off practically every time there is a storm. The branches fall off the trees and take down the power lines. The tree trimmer guys have quite a racket going on. They go around all the time trimming off the branches so they won't take down the power lines. They figured out that the branches grow back so it is lifetime employment. I don't have a backup generator. My neighbor does. So when the electricity goes out, we go over to our neighbors to drink coffee and watch TV and stuff. You might want to tell your wife that if you install a backup generator then all the neighbors are going to come over to your house every time the power goes out. I may have just saved you $10,000 with that little piece of advice.
