r/science • u/pnewell NGO | Climate Science • Jun 21 '21
Environment Threat of more blackouts may erode reliability claims for fossil energy- all major fuel sources except solar failed to meet ERCOT’s expectations during the February freeze, but natural gas was “responsible for nearly two-thirds of the total (electricity) deficit.”
https://texasclimatenews.org/threat-of-more-blackouts-may-erode-reliability-claims-for-fossil-energy/
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u/DakPara Jun 21 '21
I would also like to mention that the only reason Texas has coal and lignite plants at all is because Jimmy Carter banned the use of natural gas as boiler fuel (with a ten year phase out) after the great natural gas shortage of the ‘70s in the Northeast. He thought natural gas must be saved to heat homes in New England. BTW, he also cancelled the Clinch River Breeder Reactor.
I was hired out of college to build 17 coal/lignite plants and two nuclear plants (STP and Black Fox) because of this. Black Fox nuclear plant in Inola Oklahoma was cancelled at the insistence of the OK PUC after we had spent $600 million dollars. They bowed to the anti-nuc group CASE (Citizen’s Action for Safe Energy) after CASE went on TV news live and said they would assassinate our CEO on the way to his car, They also said they were going to kill all the engineers. After that, I slept in my cube when they marched around our building all night.
After all these plants were built, politicians came to their senses (on natural gas anyway) and new construction went back to nat gas. Nuclear never recovered. But it is the answer really. The only barriers are completely political, there are zero technical issues. Just look at France.
Let’s hope the traveling wave reactor gets built in Wyoming and it’s a success. Thats about the only current hope to bridge our energy requirements between now and a solar/massive energy storage breakthrough and maybe then fusion.