Solar energy helped Texas deal with solar heat wave

 TCD:

The severe Texas heat wave is proving to be a time for solar power to shine in the Lone Star State.

According to a report from the New York Times, Texas solar energy production has doubled in the last 18 months. What’s more, that output is expected to keep growing even more.

As temperatures in Texas topped 100 degrees Fahrenheit in late June, the power grid became taxed as air conditioners were cranked up. The Texas Tribune reported June 20 that an “atypical” number of coal- and gas-fired power plants went offline, resulting in a call for energy conservation to make sure the power supply remained stable.

Solar power is stepping in to fill that void. The sun typically provides just short of 5% of the state’s power supply, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association. But output has been up during the hot, sunny days — at a crucial time for Texans.

“Solar is producing 15% of total energy right now,” Joshua Rhodes, a researcher at the University of Texas at Austin, told the Times in June. The report noted that so far this year, solar has provided about 7% of Texas’ power.
...

For now, solar power is proving its worth during the heat wave, becoming a more important part of the power grid in Texas.

If the sun can help to keep air conditioners active during extreme temperatures, the clean energy source could be a lifesaver in more ways than one: By the end of June, at least 13 people in Texas had died as a result of the heat.
...

The heat wave has resulted in days without clouds and rainfall which pumps up the production of solar energy to deal with the higher use of air conditioners.  If this heat wave continues more Texans may add solar to their home energy.

See, also:

Baby Trapped In Hot Car Saved After Crowd Smashes Windshield

This happened in Harlingen Texas in the Lower Rio Grande Valley near the southern tip of Texas. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Should Republicans go ahead and add Supreme Court Justices to head off Democrats

Washington Post: Some Democrats eye adding more justices to the Supreme Court to change its ideological bent The once-remote idea has gained the attention of liberals angered by the GOP push to remake the federal courts. Probably the easy way to defeat this court-packing scheme is for Trump to propose doing the same thing now.  It would lead to Democrat denunciations and claims that it would be wrong, thereby blowing up any attempt by them in the unfortunate event of Democrats winning a presidential election.
Read more

29 % of companies say they are unlikely to keep insurance after Obamacare

Conn Carroll: A new survey of 368 midsize to large companies found that 29% of them are considering terminating their active employee health care plans when Obamacare is full implemented in 2014. Only 71% of employers surveyed said they did not expect to drop their health coverage, while 20% said they did not know and 9% said they were planning to exit. The latest survey, conducted by Towers Watson, echoes an ealier survey by McKinsey & Co. finding that 30% of private-sector employers were planning to drop their employee health insurance coverage by 2014. When the Congressional Budget Office crunched Obamacare's spending numbers, they estimated that only 7% of employees currently covered by employer-sponsored plans would lose their plans. ... This means the cost of the health care fiasco will be hundreds of billions more than estimated by the CBO and Congressional Democrat. It is also clear that Obama's pledge that you could keep your health care plan if you wanted t
Read more

Bin Laden's concern about Zarqawi's remains

James Robbins: ... Bin Laden suggests that President Bush should allow Zarqawi’s body to be returned to his family in Jordan, but this is a matter that is up to the Jordanian government, which so far has not shown much interest in facilitating a homecoming. Bin Laden mocks King Abdullah II, calling him a Coalition minion, and asking “w hat scares you about Abu Musab after he’s dead? You know that his funeral, if allowed to happen, would be a huge funeral showing the extent of sympathy with the mujahedin.” A large crowd would definitely turn out, though most people would be on hand to demonstrate their anger and disgust. Last November’s hotel bombings in Amman , masterminded by Zarqawi, are still fresh in people’s memory, and mentioning them to Jordanians has the same visceral impact as memory of the 9/11 attacks does here. Jordan has adopted a zero-tolerance policy towards those who choose to mourn the country’s least favorite son, and four opposition members of parliament who paid con
Read more