Negative. It appears the big players are Greencoat Capital of Ireland, NextEra Energy Partners of Florida, Exus Management Partners of Spain, and GE Energy Financial Services of Connecticut.
Texas' fault here lies in the fact that they allowed renewable sources too much weight in terms of grid capacity. Were they lied to by the investment firms when they approved these projects over conventional?
T Bone Pickens, a former geologist, oil man and founder of Mesa Petroleum, was the first true proponent of wind farms in TX, way, way back in the 80's. All of the rest of us thought he was crazy when he started building turbines out in West TX where there was ... nothing but oil and tumbleweeds. Guess he saw something in those tumbleweeds that the rest of us didn't.
No, BTC mining with stranded gas is not a big thing. Most of the BTC power comes from the grid.
Einstein gave the same test to students every year. When asked why he would do something like that, "Because the answers had changed."
Sure, go ahead and install wind turbines but a 3MW wind turbine doesn't equal 3MW of grid capacity. Maybe, if we don't count wind towards total generating capacity planners would have to expand conventional generation alongside cheap (subsidized) wind as the demand grows.
Oil, gas, mining, forestry is also subsidised by the depletion allowance. What's the difference in whatever you name it a a tax credit or an outright deduction.
Einstein gave the same test to students every year. When asked why he would do something like that, "Because the answers had changed."
No, I never met him, but ... no kidding, my brother and his son were friends for a time in the late 60's and early 70's. He got around more than me and also knew one of the ZZTop band (from our old high school) ... if you get my drift.
Einstein gave the same test to students every year. When asked why he would do something like that, "Because the answers had changed."
Yep the working stockpiles of coal are rapidly building up next to the coal power stations. Some of them are obviously still getting worked up. But the reserves are going in.
A young college said look they are ready now for winter and was quite shocked when I said that's a 5 day supply mate incase the railway gets blocked.
Meanwhile back at the ranch... BTC mines power down ..
"Thankfully, the worst-case scenario did not come to pass on Monday (even though some Texans “reported sporadic brownouts throughout the state,” according to the Washington Post). State power demand, which had reached a record high last week most likely because of full-blast air conditioners, appeared to lower on Monday and reduce pressure on the grid. Power-sucking, industrial-scale Bitcoin miners who’d set up operations within the state over the past year have shut down their rigs until the heat wave passes, freeing up at least 1 percent of state grid capacity, according to the Texas Blockchain Association. Cities like San Antonio took energy-conservation measures at the municipal level. And ERCOT reported, with some relief, that Texans had indeed voluntary slowed down their power use, altogether saving up to 500 megawatts (an amount that, on its own, is sufficient to fully power 100,000 homes)."
If they had a better balance of solar in their renewable mix (they are way overproportioned in wind), they'd be perfectly set to turn on the air conditioners in the hot, sunny afternoon hours, coincidently when they need it the most, but that actually makes sense ... so, nope.
You have to make them think it's their idea.
Einstein gave the same test to students every year. When asked why he would do something like that, "Because the answers had changed."
I only get the info from usa solar groups but the constant regulation changes to ensure enphase micro inverters and solaredge remain the only real option to buy is really killing the domestic market.
It's seems as soon as there is an alternative to them both then the regs get changed to require a new feature that can only be done with those two.
I can't understand why they don't just require all inverters to be set at 0.9pf or require a PF production curve.
The prices people are paying for relatively small domestic systems is incredible. And the amount of hoop jumping to get the paperwork done and approved is also collosal. Talking 30k$ and 4 months before it can be turned on. On a capacity of system that would cost me 8k and it's 2 weeks from paperwork submission to meter change and it gets turned on the day it's installed.
Fed up with it all and want to go off grid.... Right your house is now deemed unfit for habitation because your not connected to the grid.
I have been searching for the drivers for most of these regulations. But there has been remarkably few that I can find. Fatal or none fatal. In fact there will be more inspectors killed travelling to inspections than they save by a huge factor.
They tried to lobby to get the regs changed in Europe to require rapid shutdown, arc protection, fused DC strings etc. Thankfully they failed.
I might add Tesla is just as bad. You basically have no control over what you have bought which is the same with solaredge. Any changes and you need to get someone to do it for you at great expense. If your installer goes bust you have to pay for a new one to survey your installation to then take control of it.
For some that don't know, Boone. T. Boone Pickens wanted to build wind farms that connected to the Eastern grid. The panhandle part of Texas is on the Eastern grid. He could not build them as he wanted someone else to build the transmission lines, as he could not justify the cost. The few transmission lines that are there were of a capacity to serve the local load, and not much else.
For those that don't know, The wizard of OZ was written by a woman that had lived in Liberal Kansas, which is in the dust bowl area that includes the South West part of Kansas, and the panhandles of both Oklahoma, and Texas. Lots of wind, not much rain, and not many people.
Texas does have a few DC to DC ties, but not enough. And that part of the Eastern Grid doesn't have a lot of extra capacity. As I have heard.
The other side of this "issue" is the reality that modern technology has made life without the grid comfortable, even for those without our own generating capability. A previous owner wired my current home with a transfer switch but I've never been tempted to buy a generator despite Detroit's famously frequent outages bc they dont particularly affect us. Our phones easily go days between 30 minute charges and even my laptop will last most/all of a work-from-home day so if power goes out there's no pressure to immediately seek a charge elsewhere. Our home comfortably stays >50F even at <20F outdoors and we cook with gas, so the only real impact is to refrigeration. Like most of the US we're also moderately urban here with multiple power providers within a few mins drive, so there's always something to go out and do, and public buildings with power within an easy distance if I need a charge. Not to argue that high reliability shouldn't always be a goal, but perfection is unrealistic and life's gotten better regardless.
These problems could have been predicted from the start of deregulation mania a few decades back.
The technical reasons are just the proximate causes, which depending on the day and your beliefs, could be any number of things. They are merely quibbles.
This will sound like radical extremism to some of the Yanks on this thread, but electricity is too important a public good to let it be managed by private interests. We’ve seen similar debacles happen with privatized water in various places in the world.
"If you don't have time to do the job right the first time, when are you going to find time to repair it?"
So I get my electricity from a public company, and the only complaints I have is the cost, and the mandated cost increases to pay for renewable sources. The number of outages have not been as bad as with that of government run providers.
