Dave N. wrote: Tue Feb 07, 2023 12:12 pm

Wood Goblin wrote: Tue Feb 07, 2023 11:06 am I learned a few minutes ago that the state that’s leading the country in building new green-energy projects is . . . Texas? That can’t be right.

It’s Texas. Dang.

Doesn’t surprise me a bit. Contracts from green energy companies are lucrative, and opportunism has always reigned supreme here. Almost all of Texas is privatized, and there are a lot of people in the wind corridors who own hardscrabble properties that are cowburnt, too costly to farm or ranch, or have dry wells. When a green energy company comes along and offers a 20 year contract to put turbines or panels up and it results in a steady income stream for the landowner, renewable energy suddenly sounds like a good idea to those with a fossil fuel bias.

Just gonna agree here. This is my experience/perspective here. Texas conservative values are how to make as much money as possible regardless of outcome, and fight bullshit culture wars.

The Government here actually blamed wind/green power as the reason for 2021 energy crisis, and since Trumpy had made fun of them the Q's ran with that as an easy target. Shortly after a bunch of newspaper were like "Hey man, that's a total lie" so the governors office threw out a couple of bureaucrats as fall guys for the problem to distract from what was really the issue: Privatization has its own set of problems that don't serve the public good.

penningtron wrote: Tue Feb 07, 2023 12:24 pm

Wood Goblin wrote: Tue Feb 07, 2023 12:05 pm And also having a huge, huge amount of space that’s ideal for it, without a lot of NIMBY types.

Yeah.. pro business types in California like to complain about red tape, but they also don't have to overlook oil storage tanks from their balconies which can be the case in SE Texas. Most on my dad's side of the family didn't live to 70. Go capitalism!

FWIW, California placed second after Texas—a distant second, but second nonetheless.

Dave N. wrote: Tue Feb 07, 2023 12:12 pm

Wood Goblin wrote: Tue Feb 07, 2023 11:06 am I learned a few minutes ago that the state that’s leading the country in building new green-energy projects is . . . Texas? That can’t be right.

It’s Texas. Dang.

Doesn’t surprise me a bit. Contracts from green energy companies are lucrative, and opportunism has always reigned supreme here. Almost all of Texas is privatized, and there are a lot of people in the wind corridors who own hardscrabble properties that are cowburnt, too costly to farm or ranch, or have dry wells. When a green energy company comes along and offers a 20 year contract to put turbines or panels up and it results in a steady income stream for the landowner, renewable energy suddenly sounds like a good idea to those with a fossil fuel bias.

Hunt Energy is one of those private companies and they're investing heavily in wind and solar. Got a buddy who works there and a lot of the top brass has been like "Wait, we can turn a free resource into energy and then sell it? And if we beat the other guys to market, when their capacity goes down we can charge a premium for it?" Hunt is pivoting hard towards renewables.

Just found out my mom's been without power in the Austin area for 3 days. I sure as shit would be investing in some solar panels like.. yesterday.

"We don't want electricity from cucks!" - Greg Abbott, the American Erdogan.

penningtron wrote: Wed Feb 08, 2023 12:25 pm Just found out my mom's been without power in the Austin area for 3 days. I sure as shit would be investing in some solar panels like.. yesterday.

A few friends who live down there have sent me images of the tree carnage - live oaks in particular were snapping right and left from the weight of the ice. Anyone serviced by aerial transmission lines (which is to say, a fucking lot of people) are at risk if the tree line wasn't managed. This is always a fight with the city/utilities as property owners don't wanna lose their trees, and the utilities would like as much clearance as they can possibly get, and this is the result.

It's the result of a different problem than the shit that was on the news in 2021, but it's still the result of poorly managed utilities.

Frankie99 wrote: Wed Feb 08, 2023 12:43 pm It's the result of a different problem than the shit that was on the news in 2021, but it's still the result of poorly managed utilities.

Yeah we run that risk up here too, and experienced a bad one after a summer storm 2 years ago, but I do think the threat of ice storms is taken a little more seriously here.

But I definitely don't take our crumbling power grid lightly. I would like solar panels as well, it just always gets pushed aside for other things. Also, the half cord of firewood I order every fall is for more than just cozy time: we may really fuckin' need it at some point. The local power plant nearly shut down during December's arctic blast..

penningtron wrote: Wed Feb 08, 2023 1:02 pm

Frankie99 wrote: Wed Feb 08, 2023 12:43 pm It's the result of a different problem than the shit that was on the news in 2021, but it's still the result of poorly managed utilities.

Yeah we run that risk up here too, and experienced a bad one after a summer storm 2 years ago, but I do think the threat of ice storms is taken a little more seriously here.

But I definitely don't take our crumbling power grid lightly. I would like solar panels as well, it just always gets pushed aside for other things. Also, the half cord of firewood I order every fall is for more than just cozy time: we may really fuckin' need it at some point. The local power plant nearly shut down during December's arctic blast..

Digressing a bit, but I've been waiting to get solar until providers offer battery storage along with it (solar by itself doesn't provide backup power). Looks like they've finally started to offer it in the Midwest (west coast has had it for a while), so I'm going to look into it seriously this spring.

penningtron wrote: Wed Feb 08, 2023 12:25 pm Just found out my mom's been without power in the Austin area for 3 days. I sure as shit would be investing in some solar panels like.. yesterday.

It was a real shitshow. Most of my friends were without power for 3-4 days. FM Trey maybe a little longer. I was lucky to have power through it all. The ice storm was worse than forecasted, and for a couple of days and nights you heard the cracking of branches constantly, loud pops that almost sounded like rifle fire. After everything had melted, it looked like a hurricane went through town.

Austin has strict tree canopy laws that often cause a push-pull between conservationists and developers. We’ve got a pair of 200 year old oaks in the yard that have been under scrutiny from the city, since we have a construction project going in the backyard. We had a limb removed for safety and access reasons, and the city inspector threw a fit. I’m all for this kind of oversight, but I’m betting things are going to change after this last storm.

I just got a letter that my little dude, who starts first grade in September, made it into the public bilingual (German/English) school program we applied for here last fall.
I am extremely happy and relieved.