America’s Looming Electricity Crisis Is Trump’s Achilles’ Heel
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article in the Telegraph.
This is the sub-heading.
Culture war banter and point-scoring have left Maga facing a self-inflicted energy shortage
These are the first three paragraphs.
The US is in danger of losing the global AI race for the most banal and careless of reasons: it is critically short of electricity.
The country is sitting on a neglected pre-modern grid that cannot meet surging power demand for data centres, cryptocurrencies, the reshoring of semiconductor plants and the proclaimed revival of the American industrial base.
Nor can it meet the needs for air conditioning through hotter and more humid summers. While we all talk about AI, the chief cause of rising electricity use last year was for cooling. Bitcoin mining took another 2pc of US power, for no productive purpose.
It looks like we can add simple arithmetic to the skills the Trump Administration lacks.
The Telegraph article and myself have some other thoughts.
The Planned Increase In Electricity Is A Fifth Of What’s Needed
This is a paragraph from the Telegraph.
The US Energy Department said in its Resource Adequacy Report in July that the planned increase in firm electricity supply is a fifth of what is needed by 2030.
In Renewable Power By 2030 In The UK, I stated that by 2030, the UK would add nearly 59 GW of offshore wind.
Surely, using the population size difference of four times, 240 GW of offshore wind, would do the USA nicely?
But, Trump doesn’t like wind turbines.
Texas Has A Shortage Of Electricity
These are two paragraphs from the Telegraph.
The Texas grid operator Ercot expects peak power demand in its region to soar from 87 gigawatts (GW) this year to 138 GW by 2030. This is physically impossible.
Texas passed a law in June giving the state emergency authority to cut off power to data centres. Ercot is already having to deploy “mobile generation plants” at exorbitant cost to avert blackouts even today.
It sounds pretty desperate.
Texas needs another 51 GW by 2030, which is less than we intend to delivery from just offshore wind.
If Little Great Britain can do it, then surely Texas can? After all, Texas is three almost times larger than the UK.
I get the idea, that someone isn’t doing any planning.
The United States Needs A Lot Of Transformers
These are three paragraphs from the Telegraph.
The National Infrastructure Advisory Council (Niac) says the average age of America’s 60 million large power transformers is 38 years. Many are beyond their design life.
The US supply chain is not capable of delivering the 12 million new transformers needed each year to keep the show on the road. The backlog has risen to four years. The cost of transformers has jumped 80pc since the pandemic.
There is an acute shortage of electrical steel needed to make them. This comes mostly from China, Japan, Korea or Germany. In his infinite wisdom, Trump has imposed 50pc tariffs on steel, aluminium and copper. That cost shock has yet to feed through.
The Niac says it is a similar tale for “other critical grid components such as conduit, smart meters, switchgear and high-voltage circuit breakers”.
It looks like, there’s another fine mess, you’ve got us in, Donny!
Maga Wants More Coal
These are three paragraphs from the Telegraph.
The quickest way to generate more power is to roll out wind and solar. Trump is actively intervening to obstruct this. Maga wants coal instead.
This week the administration announced $625m of taxpayer subsidy to “expand and reinvigorate” the coal industry. It will open new federal lands, slash the royalty fees for extracting coal, and lift curbs on mercury pollution.
“In addition to drill, baby drill, we need to mine, baby, mine,” said Doug Burgum, the interior secretary.
When it should be spin, baby, spin.
Conclusion
Read the article in full.
We certainly, don’t want anybody, with an energy policy like Trump, influencing the UK’s energy policy.
If Trump carries on like this, he’ll end up in a terrible mess.
A Thought On The Texas Floods
I asked Google AI, if Texas is bad for natural disasters.
This was the reply.
Yes, Texas is known to be susceptible to a high number of natural disasters, particularly when compared to other states in the US. Texas experiences a wide variety of natural hazards, including hurricanes, floods, wildfires, tornadoes, hail storms, sinkholes, and droughts. The state has also experienced earthquakes, potentially linked to the extraction of natural resources like oil and gas.
I certainly wouldn’t want to live there, as my one experience of a bad storm in the UK nearly killed me. I wrote about my experiences in The Great Storm.
Plus Power Raises USD 1.8bn For Energy Storage In Texas, Arizona
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Renewables Now.
These two paragraphs outline the story.
Houston-based battery systems developer Plus Power LLC unveiled on Tuesday the completion of USD 1.8 billion (EUR 1.7bn) in new financing for the construction and operation of five standalone energy storage projects in Texas and Arizona.
The financing commitments, arranged in the form of construction and term financings, letters of credit, and tax equity investments, are dedicated to five projects with a combined capacity of 1,040 MW/2,760 MWh.
Note.
- This financing indicates how those banks and financial institutions with masses of money are prepared to put that money into energy storage.
- It is also good to see, that the journalist who wrote the story has given both the output of these batteries and their storage capacity.
- I can see many deals like this being done in the next few years.
But when will we see a financing deal like this for some of the other methods of storage that are being developed?
Justice – Texas Style
I can’t work out whether this story on NBC, which is entitled Texas Taqueria Customer Fatally Shoots Masked Robber And Returns Money To Patrons, Police Say, makes me feel carrying guns is a good or bad idea?
But at least he seems to know how to use his weapon, as he only hit one person; the robber.
Fracking Has a Bad Rep, but Its Tech Is Powering A Clean Energy Shift
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Texas Monthly.
It shows how former frackers are developing their techniques to do the following.
- Extract heat and energy from shale using water.
- Store energy safely underground.
- Drill deeper and better geothermal wells.
One of the companies; Quidnet has been backed by Bill Gates and his friends. I wrote about Quidnet Energy a couple of years ago in How Do You Save Clean Energy? This Company Plans To Pump It Underground.
And all in environmentally-friendly ways, that would get a seal-of-approval from a committed anti-fracker.
It’s the best article I’ve read this week.
Lightweight Green Supercapacitors Could Quickly Charge Devices
The title of this post is the same as that of this article on Texas A & M Today.
This is the sub-title.
Texas A&M researchers have designed a new energy storage device that can store a charge up to 900 times greater than state-of-the-art supercapacitors.
It appears what they have developed is plant-based.
They appear to use lignin and potassium permanganate to create the electrodes for a supercapacitor.
It looks to be interesting research.
Newcomer Broad Reach Power To Deploy Increasingly Large Battery Systems In Texas
The title of this post is the same as that of this article on Energy Storage News.
This is the introductory paragraph.
US-based independent power producer (IPP) Broad Reach Power has said it will build 15 projects in Texas in 2020, each of them just under 10MW / 10MWh, with construction on six of them set to begin this summer.
The article then goes on to describe the electricity industry in Texas and where the battery storage fits in.
It’s all a far cry from the Texas portrayed in soaps like Dallas.
Wind Power In Texas
Wind Power in Texas has its own Wikipedia entry and this is the first paragraph.
Wind power in Texas consists of over 40 wind farms, which together have a total nameplate capacity of over 28,000 MW (as of 2019). If Texas were a country, it would rank fifth in the world: The installed wind capacity in Texas exceeds installed wind capacity in all countries but China, the United States, Germany and India. Texas produces the most wind power of any U.S. state.
But then everything in Texas, is famed as being the biggest in the world.
Their installed capacity of 28 GW compares with 17.64 GW of installed wind power in the UK.
Solar Power In Texas
Solar Power in Texas also has its own Wikipedia entry and this is the first paragraph.
Solar power in Texas, along with wind power, has the potential to allow Texas to remain an energy-exporting state over the long term. The western portion of the state especially has abundant open land areas, with some of the greatest solar and wind potential in the country. Development activities there are also encouraged by relatively simple permitting and significant available transmission capacity.
The Wikipedia entry also says that in 2019, Texas had 4.32 GW of installed solar power.
By comparison, the UK has 8.1 GW of installed solar power. Who’d have thought that?
As Texas is 2.87 times geographically larger than the UK, if Texas had the same solar panel density as the UK, Texas would have an installed capacity of 23.2 GW.
The Need For Energy Storage In Texas
With all this installed wind and solar energy in Texas and its potential for expansion, there would appear to a massive demand for energy storage in the state.
Conclusion
What would JR think?
The Texas Bullet Train
In the past, I have spent quite a few hours driving the long distances around Texas.
This article in Global Rail News is entitled Progress For Texas’ High-Speed Railway.
Texas Central Railway is proposing a high speed rail line between Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston, with the following characteristics.
- 240 miles long.
- Stations at Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston.
- Routed along major infrastructure corridors like Interstate highways and freight railways.
- Ninety minute journey time.
- A train every thirty minutes.
- Based on Japanese Shinkensen technology.
- Wikipedia mentions, that the line could open as early as 2020.
- Possibility of expansion to Austin and San Antonio.
- Fluor Corporation, which is a very large engineering and construction company, headquartered in Texas, is involved in the design.
There’s more here on the Texas Central web site.
There’s also an appraisal of the line in this article in Dallas News, which is entitled Proposed Routes for Dallas-Houston High-Speed Rail Revealed.
Some points from the article.
- Dallas would like the railway to connect to their extensive DART light rail system and perhaps even terminate at Dallas Union station.
- A construction cost of $10 billion is given.
- An in service date of 2021 is given.
Dallas certainly seems in favour of the project.
Conclusion
There certainly seems to be a degree of good will and support for this project.
Being Texas, they just had to label it a bullet train, but I’m more surprised that they seem to use railway instead of railroad.
America – The Sick
This film is being advertised all over London at the moment.
America – The Sick
After the latest shootings in Connecticut, who needs a chainsaw?
Anyway the original massacre happened in Wisconsin, not Texas.
But judging by the number of adverts, the film is probably an absolute dud.
A Man Who Got More Than He Wanted at Wal-Mart
This story about a man, who got bitten by a snake in Wal-Mart, looks like a beanfeast for American lawyers. Incidentally, in all of my travels, I can’t remember seeing a snake in the wild. I did have a taste of rattlesnake once in Texas. The old joke is it is like chicken with bite.
C also was very brave when it came to handling snakes and there are several pictures of her with them round her neck. The only animals she had a phobia of was chickens, turkeys and large ducks.
The Anonymous Widower 