Snow was fun till power quit

[chessie4905]

Typical!

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-02-05/wind-turbine-blades-can-t-be-recycled-so-they-re-piling-up-in-landfills

[richard5933]

Typical!

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-02-05/wind-turbine-blades-can-t-be-recycled-so-they-re-piling-up-in-landfills

I must have missed the memo... Is it bash green energy week?

[luvrbus]

I must have missed the memo... Is it bash green energy week?

Texas only gets less than a 1/5 of their electricity from windmills not bashing the source but when you drive through on I 10 around Iarran 2/3 or more of the windmills are never turning

[David Anderson]

Yes a Texas winter only last a few days, but this one really got us. Some of you know I have been in the carwash and laundry business for 37 years and this will by far be the most expensive damaging event in my career. I had this all prepared and set up to get through it and it was working fine until the power was lost. Rolling outages were ok until they completely shut us down for over 36 hrs.   This has never happened before and I naively didn't expect it.  All my lines were weeping until the city's water stopped. Now 3 days in I have frozen boilers, water softeners, heat exchangers, pumps, and numerous exploded pipes.  At this point I don't know when we will reopen.
If they just would have made the blackouts rolling like they promised we would have been fine.

The power came back on this evening, but we are staying in the bus. We don't trust AEP to do what they say
David

[Nova Eona]

So the world's scientists are in broad agreement that green energy is necessary to combat climate change which is responsible for increasingly severe and unusual weather, but the state which gets most of their electricity from fossil fuels and refuses to interlink with the rest of the national grids so they can ignore federal environmental regulations is blaming green energy for power failures during a severe and unusual weather event?  Okay then.

[chessie4905]

No not bashing green energy. Just reality week.

[David Anderson]

I'm not bashing it either. Texas has more wind power than any other state, even California.
ERCOT showed an all time record demand of 69000 megawatts yesterday, higher than an August peak.  It was reported that nearly half the wind turbines shut down because of snow. Natural gas pipelines froze too. All the stars aligned for a bad day for sure.

Even though the Texas grid is independent from the rest of the country there was a shortage throughout the Midwest.  Not much power to purchase.

I just wish they would have rolled the outages like they promised. Some of my neighbors never lost power and others have been black since Sunday.  Brrrr🥶

[luvrbus]

This gets funny people talking about the environment,green energy  , driving and owning a bus with a 2 stroke  Detroit Diesel 

[richard5933]

This gets funny people talking about the environment,green energy  , driving and owning a bus with a 2 stroke  Detroit Diesel

I taught at a school decades ago with a really interesting science teacher. He'd hear a statement like this and go off quietly and do the math. Things are not always as it seems. I wonder what the environmental savings are with us driving the old 2-strokes. True, they get horrible mileage, drip oil, and aren't the cleanest burning vehicles on the road. But, how much environmental impact would there have been if we bought new instead?

His favorite example was disposable diapers. Lots of people think that cloth diapers are more environmentally friendly, but once he did the math on the resources consumed growing the cotton, making the diapers, and the water and energy used to clean them it was surprising. He made a strong argument that the disposable actually had a smaller env. impact.

[luvrbus]

I taught at a school decades ago with a really interesting science teacher. He'd hear a statement like this and go off quietly and do the math. Things are not always as it seems. I wonder what the environmental savings are with us driving the old 2-strokes. True, they get horrible mileage, drip oil, and aren't the cleanest burning vehicles on the road. But, how much environmental impact would there have been if we bought new instead?

His favorite example was disposable diapers. Lots of people think that cloth diapers are more environmentally friendly, but once he did the math on the resources consumed growing the cotton, making the diapers, and the water and energy used to clean them it was surprising. He made a strong argument that the disposable actually had a smaller env. impact.

LOL have you ever visited a plant were they make the windmills or solar panel I have they use some real environmental friendly products making both,.public landfills won't accept the stuff,a trucker told me he was taking the old blades to some state where they buried the blades   

[chessie4905]

I dont know why they cant shred them and using the resulting material to produce something other filler for holes.

[richard5933]

LOL have you ever visited a plant were they make the windmills or solar panel I have they use some real environmental friendly products making both,.public landfills won't accept the stuff,a trucker told me he was taking the old blades to some state where they buried the blades

I get it that dealing with the used blades is a problem, but how does it compare to removing a mountain to get at the coal under it?

[luvrbus]

I'm not bashing it either. Texas has more wind power than any other state, even California.
ERCOT showed an all time record demand of 69000 megawatts yesterday, higher than an August peak.  It was reported that nearly half the wind turbines shut down because of snow. Natural gas pipelines froze too. All the stars aligned for a bad day for sure.

Even though the Texas grid is independent from the rest of the country there was a shortage throughout the Midwest.  Not much power to purchase.

I just wish they would have rolled the outages like they promised. Some of my neighbors never lost power and others have been black since Sunday.  Brrrr🥶

David is that area not like most areas in Texas where you can shop for the best rate from different suppliers or are  you married to one in you area.we have 3 to choose from on the coast and go for cheap one lol

I get it that dealing with the used blades is a problem, but how does it compare to removing a mountain to get at the coal under it?

They mine the products in the making of the windmills 

[David Anderson]

David is that area not like most areas in Texas where you can shop for the best rate from different suppliers or are  you married to one in you area.we have 3 to choose from on the coast and go for cheap one lol   

Yes we have full deregulation. You can shop for best rates, but AEP owns the lines and delivers the power.

At least I have the coach to stay in. No HOA to bug me. I have some friends who are miserable without heat in their home. We will stay in the coach until it ends. Predicting more snow for south TX tomorrow 🥶

[Nova Eona]

Of course we can drive two-strokes and still care about the environment - they're recycled buses!  Sure a brand new one would burn cleaner, but unless you're driving all day every day the environmental impact of building that new bus is almost certainly higher than scooting around in our ancient road oilers once in a while.  When you consider that most Class As don't seem to be made to last longer than ten years, we're downright green in comparison.

I've seen those photos of the windmill blades being buried too, but honestly that kind of waste output pales in comparison to the volume, not to mention the toxicity, of fossil fuel or nuclear plants.  I know I'd much rather live near a windmill farm and associated landfill than I would a coal plant, that's for sure.

Truly the most frustrating part is just how many politicians take money from the oil companies and then turn around and sling mud at developing green technologies.