Ercot nearly at capacity for Texas power grid

Re:Ercot nearly at capacity for Texas power grid by tolien on Monday February 15, 2021 @04:54AM (#26141063)

Per capita doesn't seem like the most useful measure here unless you're expecting people to spin the turbines by hand. Texas has (by GP's numbers) 16 times the land area and 2.5x the annual sunshine hours [1,2] (given Texas's proximity to the equator relative to Denmark, I'd be shocked if those hours didn't confer significantly more power too) but "only" 5x the generation?

Edit: Of course, it's 5x the wind power. For solar power in Texas and Denmark the difference is about 4x - 4,324.3 versus 1,079 MW [3, 4] so the point stands that Texas still has a way to go relative to the resources available to them.

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_by_sunshine_dur...

2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denmark#Climate

3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_in_Denmark

4: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_in_Texas

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ercot nearly at capacity for Texas power grid by kgermino on Monday February 15, 2021 @07:44AM (#26142186)

> Per capita doesn't seem like the most useful measure here unless you're expecting people to spin the turbines by hand.p

“Percentage of energy generated” is probably better, but per-capita is better than per-acre. Broadly speaking, people use power, not cornfields.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ercot nearly at capacity for Texas power grid by tolien on Monday February 15, 2021 @08:20AM (#26142449)

Not when acres directly correlate with the amount of energy being generated. The Sahara has very few people but would be ripe energy-generation space.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ercot nearly at capacity for Texas power grid by DetroitThrow on Monday February 15, 2021 @08:57AM (#26142778)

I think far-off deserts aren't nearly lofty enough in the context of which nations are furthest ahead in renewable energy generation...

Why not set the baseline with Mercury? That's an entire planet with much more solar capacity than any measly desert!

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ercot nearly at capacity for Texas power grid by tolien on Monday February 15, 2021 @09:21AM (#26142952)

I mean, if we're going for complete absurdity why not build a Dyson Sphere?

Getting back into the real world (and the original point, although accidentally I think you've made my point that energy generated per-capita isn't relevant) and putting aside that there are actual thoughts to build a solar farm in the north Sahara [1]...

Texas has lots of surface area currently used by agriculture so while it's cute to suggest cornfields don't need electrical power there's a conversation about whether there's space which could productively generate power and send it over the grid which the rest of the state (and through HVDC interconnects, the rest of North America) is connected to?

1: https://theconversation.com/solar-panels-in-sahara-could-boo...

[ Parent | on HN ]