by Peter Heck
As frigid temperatures and ice storms continue to envelope the state of Texas, a glaring weakness in renewable energy sources has been revealed. Wind turbines across a large portion of the state have been rendered inoperable.
While millions of Texans are in desperate need of energy for heat, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) has been forced to ask residents to limit their use in order to prevent too heavy a burden on the already-weakened grid. Frozen wind turbines, which provides nearly 22% of the state’s energy production, have crippled the state’s ability to generate the necessary amount of energy it requires.
In response to the crisis produced by reliance on renewable energy, some observers online couldn’t help but note the irony: fossil fuel-powered helicopters are spraying fossil fuel-created products on fossil-fuel created turbines that have frozen due to a winter storm that is being blamed on fossil-fuel-caused climate change.
Texas is the nation’s leading producer of wind power, with wind farms having passed coal as the second-most prominent energy source in the Lone Star State.
