Energy market deregulation in Texas

[Pies4shaw]

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-22/texans-stuck-with-high-electric-bills-after-winter-storm/13177926

A small rethink may, perhaps, be required.

[5 from the wing on debut]

It seems that there's a lot of rethinking about renewal energy with the next big thing not being wind turbines and solar cells on the ground, but satellites being used to beam solar directly from the sun to earth, 24/7. One satellite will collect, then beam to another which will transmit it to earth. Apparently China are well advanced with this and there is a joint project between a US and Australian company that's been going on for a while, and they're about to address a parliamentary committee about it.

[Pies4shaw]

It was actually the market deregulation issue that I was raising. Any system in which ordinary people have to pay $1,000 per day for electricity to keep themselves from dying of hypothermia is self-evidently broken.

[think positive]

the federal government has to do something, they have to make them accountable, charge them with homicide

https://abc13.com/hypothermia-deaths-freezing-to-death-texas-cold-weather-winter-storms/10357317/

[Tannin]

In any half-sane deregulated market, there are set maxima. Failing to have a regulated safety net maximum price is completely insane.

Beaming power from space is likely to be a ridiculously expensive boondoggle. It is far more sensible to use a mix of proven, cost-effective technologies to achieve the same goal: the two key ones are

(a) pumped hydro (and various broadly similar storage technologies) to move energy across time from when it was generated to when it is needed, and

(b) HVAC to move energy from place to place. HVAC is so efficient that it is perfectly sensible to consider use solar power from Australia to cook pre-dawn breakfasts in India. Already we have very long (many thousands of kilometres) HVDC lines in successful commercial use all around the world, and even longer ones are under construction.

[5 from the wing on debut]

[5 from the wing on debut]

[stui magpie]

This story explains how the de-regulation came to be, as well as how Texas was leading the country in Wind and other renewable energy.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-19/texas-power-fails-and-people-are-freezing-to-death/13166870

Apart from the regulatory failures in pricing, the lack of a back up power grid is clearly the big one

[5 from the wing on debut]

About 20 years ago I was quoted $28k by the power company to bring power to my front gate then it was up to me to get it the next 200m or so to the house. I am only about 30km from the Melbourne GPO.

I decided to go with a wind and solar hybrid system instead. The house is on top of a hill, I can see the CBD, Kinglake and the Dandenongs. For a budget of $30k I was told I was wasting my time and that unless I had a big generator backup I would be blacked out when I really needed power.

Mains power was my obvious choice.

Texas found out why wind power only survives around the world, with a 44% government subsidy on average, to keep it viable.

[Tannin]

Oh dear, I sense a new climate denier in the room.

Betcha I'm right.

[5 from the wing on debut]

[Tannin]

It is a standard practice of climate deniers to seize on some pie-in-the-sky future technology (fusion is a popular choice, but there are many others) and pretend to spruik it as The Answer To Everything. The actual aim, of course, is to deflect calls for practical action using technologies that (a) are available now, and (b) actually work.

Carbon capture is another favourite kick-the-can-down-the-road meme. Now it might be that this isn't the purpose of proposing this doesn't-work-yet technology. Benefit of the doubt and all that, but I get suspicious whenever I see something walking like a duck and saying "quack".

[5 from the wing on debut]

Your argument sounds like something out of Monty Python. Specifically, the witch drowning scene.

[stui magpie]

[5 from the wing on debut]

There were batteries back then but the capacity was nowhere near as good as they are now. At the same time our neighbour who had only a big solar set up , had the generator running every night over wiinter. The problem was that there wasn’t enough sunlight south of the Great Dividing Range.