Wildcatting the wind in Texas

Conventional energy vs. renewable energy

Posted by Joseph Romm (Guest Contributor) at 9:30 AM on 27 Feb 2008

This post is by ClimateProgress guest blogger Bill Becker, executive director of the Presidential Climate Action Project.

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As all eyes turn toward Texas this week in advance of the Democratic primary, we will see a state that is beginning its transition to a new energy economy. Texas is grappling with a shift the entire nation faces -- and as usual, it's doing it on a big scale.

When it comes to energy and to carbon emissions, Texas is a place of superlatives and contrasts. It has more solar, wind, and biomass resources that any other state; but it's also No. 1 in total carbon emissions.

It is the ancestral home of Big Oil, but it also hosts the world's largest wind farms. It has a very successful renewable energy portfolio standard, but it also has two nuclear power plants in the pipeline to provide power to its rapidly growing population.

A year ago in a watershed deal, a private equity firm working with environmentalists arranged a $45 billion buyout of the state's largest power producer, TXU. As part of the deal, eight of 11 planned new coal-fired power plants were cancelled. However, as many as nine new coal plants remain in the pipeline.

In Texas, we see a contest between conventional and renewable energy resources, and between the past and the future.

The first oil well was discovered in Texas in 1866. Through the early part of the last century, the state was the "dominant producer in the world oil market, producing more oil than the entire output of the Middle East."

In 1972, the state's oil production peaked and began to decline. Today, Texas is a net oil importer and has begun taking steps to make renewable energy a significant part of its energy mix and its economy. As the Texas State Energy Conservation Office as (SECO) puts it:

Texas is at a crossroads wherein development of vast in-state renewable energy resources, coupled with energy efficiency measures, offer Texans the chance to redirect their focus in order to regain and maintain their energy independence.

In 1999, the state legislature passed Senate Bill 7, which required electricity providers to generate 2,000 megawatts of new renewable energy by 2009. SB 7 led to $1 billion in investments by the wind industry and electric utilities, generating million of dollars for the state's school fund and rural tax base, and for farmers and ranchers who lease their land for turbines. "The Texas RPS has been so successful that its 10-year goal was met in just over six years," says SECO. "Wind power development in Texas has more than quadrupled since the RPS was established."

Encouraged by the success of SB7, the legislature passed Senate Bill 20 in 2005, increasing the state's RPS to 5,880 megawatts by 2015, including at least 500 megawatts from nonwind renewables. SB 20 also established a plan to build transmission lines to "Competitive Renewable Energy Zones" -- locations with major renewable resources, but no infrastructure to move the energy to market.

Meantime, the federal Clean Air Act became a driver for improving the state's energy efficiency. To try to reduce air emissions in 41 nonattainment counties, the legislature passed Senate Bill 5, requiring that municipalities in those counties to adopt all cost-effective energy efficiency measures and achieve savings of at least 5 percent annually for five years. To help municipalities meet the goal, SECO partnered with energy efficiency programs at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy, and SB 5 became a model of state-federal collaboration.

Texas now brags that it is America's undisputed leader in renewable energy. Last year, it became the first state in the U.S. to achieve one gigawatt of wind installations in a single year. Its wind farms at Horse Hollow and Sweetwater rank No. 1 and No. 2 in the country in terms of size. Texas also is exploring off-shore wind development along its massive coastline.

Today, there are signs that the old wildcatting spirit is emerging again, but this time above ground. Farmers and ranchers are finding that by leasing land to wind developers, they can earn $6,000 annually per turbine and still graze or farm the land around the turbines' small footprint. It's hard to find a crop that's more profitable and still legal.

As The New York Times reported last Saturday (Feb. 23) in an article titled, "Move Over, Oil, There's Money in Texas Wind":

Texans are even turning tapped-out oil fields into wind farms, and no less an oilman than Boone Pickens is getting into alternative energy. "I have the same feelings about wind," Mr. Pickens said in an interview, "as I had about the best oil field I ever found." He is planning to build the biggest wind farm in the world, a $10 billion behemoth that could power a small city by itself ... "I like wind because it's renewable and it's clean and you know you are not going to be dealing with a production decline curve," Mr. Pickens said. "Decline curves finally wore me out in the oil business."

Solar energy development also is moving in Texas. The U.S. Department of Energy wants to build concentrating solar power stations in the Southwest, including Texas, to achieve 1,000 megawatts of power by 2010.

Texas defies the stereotype that renewable energy is the darling of the left. Both of the state's U.S. Senators are Republican; its Congressional delegation is overwhelmingly Republican; both houses of its legislature are controlled by Republicans; and the legislative achievements cited above came under two Republican governors, George W. Bush and Rick Perry.

To be sure, Texas has a very long way to go in making the transition to a clean energy economy. The state ranks only 34th on Forbes' list of green states -- an assessment that includes not only carbon emissions, but green buildings and other sustainability criteria. Renewable resources still provide only about 4 percent of the state's electric power, while 40 percent comes from coal and 13 percent comes from two nuclear power plants. According to The New York Times, cancellation of the TXU coal plants puts the state in some danger of falling below the generation reserves experts recommend to handle peak consumption periods, for example periods of high heat. And renewables can expect stiff competition from natural gas as the state tries to meet the needs of its growing population while reducing its carbon footprint.

But just as they once led the nation in oil production, energy entrepreneurs in Texas have begun to lead America in the exploration of a new set of resources -- clean, inexhaustible, profitable, and absolutely essential if we are to head off the worst impacts of global climate change.

This post was created for ClimateProgress.org, a project of the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

For story: Wildcatting the wind in Texas
12 Comments | Post a Comment

Texas wind and Texas coal

Texas wind generators tend to produce power when it is not needed, and do not produce it when it is needed. Wind speed drops all over Texas, during the summer. During summer days it drop even more. The Texas wind capacity factor during the summer is under 17%, but at midday during July and August is is significantly lower. Midday is when people start turning on their air-conditioners.

Wind generation means that coal and gas fired plants have to be kept in reserve, to keep electricity flowing to Texas air conditioners. In Texas the unreliability of wind generated electricity is used to argue the case of those who want to keep fossil fuel plants running for a long time to come. The wind generation people are in cahoots with the coal interests.

Charles Barton

by Charles Barton at 10:04 AM on 27 Feb 2008

Mighty foolish

It was a big mistake for Hillary not to go green in the debate. It's a big vulnerability for barack, and she has nothing to lose now.

There is still a chance on thursday I believe? but Barack won't participate. Maybe some taunting would help?

Go full bore on wind, solar, renewable smart grid, plugin hybrid, geo heat exchange heating/cooling, biogas power, organic ag,and so forth...

Barack could only respond with his support of his lobbyist positions on energy policy. Clean coal, fuel farming/flex fuel, and nuclear power.

The Texas energy forum is a last chance for Hillary, a very slim one, so why not go for broke?

http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog John Schneider, Northern Wisconsin

by amazingdrx at 10:14 AM on 27 Feb 2008

Exporting pollution to Dixie

This post doesn't mention the fact that a big portion of greenhouse gas pollution in the Lone Star State comes from the oil refineries along the Houston Ship Channel.

That pollution goes down as a black mark against Texas's per-capital GHG production, but we in the northern states are still buying and using those refineries' products. In fact, in the last year that data was available, the average Maine motorist drove 11,348 miles: over 1,000 miles MORE than the average six-shootin', hollerin' Texan. Back-to-the-land Vermonters drive even more on a per-capita basis. So not only are we actually responsible for more pollution, we're also doing the dishonorable deed of producing a lot of that pollution in a poorer part of the country where more minorities and immigrants live.

As a northerner who lived in Texas for a year, I've witnessed a lot of childish jibes against Texas coming from the environmental establishment, so I certainly appreciate this article's optimism with regard to Texas's energy leadership and potential. This state and its people deserve a lot more credit than they typically get.

vigorousnorth.blogspot.com A field guide to the wilderness areas of American inner cities.

by cneal at 11:54 AM on 27 Feb 2008

JFK to duuhbya

I think the leading wind power state gets a bad rap because of the JFK assasination and duuhbya, the shaved chimp. Oh and LBJ's bunghole tape. Wonder if Hillary will mention him again?

Enron, Kenny lay, Delay, Choicepoint corporate spy redistricting, record executions of minorities, the ocasional chainsaw massacre film, halliburton, exxonmob, the oil bidness,

The 9/11 terrorism go-ahead from the saudis because of Unocal demanding the Afhgan oil pipeline corridor by threatening a carpet of bombs or a carpet of gold, it all hurts their image.

Then there was the famous Texas bumpersticker from the 70s oil crisis, "Let 'Em Freeze in the Dark". Hehey.

http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog John Schneider, Northern Wisconsin

by amazingdrx at 12:14 PM on 27 Feb 2008

Lotsa wind...

Texas gets over 3% of it's energy from renewables (mostly wind), and that good considerin' that most of our wind energy actually goes to other states. We have a 15% renewable by 2020 standard, and at the rate of wind construction, we should be able to meet it.

We've broken every other standard that was set out long before the deadline. And assumin' the green energy creds get through Congress (which is a very large assumption), then we should be producin' close to 5,000 MW by this time next year.

The Dakotas actually have more wind energy potential than us, but for some reason they haven't done much to develop it. In this case, i guess the lobbyists were a good thing, since they've worked very hard around here to push for a greater renewable energy standard.

by Tasermons Partner at 12:48 PM on 27 Feb 2008

wind or hot air?

Loss of wind causes Texas power grid emergency
Wed Feb 27, 2008 8:11pm EST

HOUSTON (Reuters) - A drop in wind generation late on Tuesday, coupled with colder weather, triggered an electric emergency that caused the Texas grid operator to cut service to some large customers, the grid agency said on Wednesday.

Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) said a decline in wind energy production in west Texas occurred at the same time evening electric demand was building as colder temperatures moved into the state.

The grid operator went directly to the second stage of an emergency plan at 6:41 PM CST (0041 GMT), ERCOT said in a statement.

System operators curtailed power to interruptible customers to shave 1,100 megawatts of demand within 10 minutes, ERCOT said. Interruptible customers are generally large industrial customers who are paid to reduce power use when emergencies occur.

No other customers lost power during the emergency, ERCOT said. Interruptible customers were restored in about 90 minutes and the emergency was over in three hours.

ERCOT said the grid's frequency dropped suddenly when wind production fell from more than 1,700 megawatts, before the event, to 300 MW when the emergency was declared.

In addition, ERCOT said multiple power suppliers fell below the amount of power they were scheduled to produce on Tuesday. That, coupled with the loss of wind generated in West Texas, created problems moving power to the west from North Texas.

ERCOT declares a stage 1 emergency when power reserves fall below 2,300 MW. A stage 2 emergency is called when reserves fall below 1,750 MW.

At the time of the emergency, ERCOT demand increased from 31,200 MW to a peak of 35,612 MW, about half the total generating capacity in the region, according to the agency's Web site.

Texas produces the most wind power of any state and the number of wind farms is expected to increase dramatically as new transmission lines are built to transfer power from the western half of the state to more populated areas in the north.

Earlier on Tuesday, grid problems led to a blackout in Florida that cut power to about 1 million electric customers across that state for as much as four hours.

Charles Barton

by Charles Barton at 10:37 AM on 28 Feb 2008

Meanwhile...

...a problem at a Florida nuclear plant substation caused a power outage for 3 million.

All sources of energy have problems and may face certain periods where the grid cannot meet demand or somethin' goes wrong.

Gas can be interrupted or explode, coal is limited and if demand is underestimated they can't increase supply very quickly (plus both gas and coal are non-renewable, so they'll run out eventually). Nuclear is complex and prone to maintenance problems and also water and mining issues. Solar won't work when the sun don't shine. Wave won't work when the water is calm. Geothermal has to be careful not be prone to/cause geological instability and is also high maintenance. And of course wind doesn't work when there isn't any wind.

That's why a wide portfolio of renewables are needed to act together to help counteract any disruptions at the source.

by Tasermons Partner at 11:39 AM on 28 Feb 2008

And to prove they're all vulnerable...

In addition, ERCOT said multiple power suppliers fell below the amount of power they were scheduled to produce on Tuesday.

That means the coal, nuclear, and gas plants underestimated the demand as well, or didn't produce what they said they would for that time period. Can't blame it all on wind.

by Tasermons Partner at 11:42 AM on 28 Feb 2008

Smart grid

"System operators curtailed power to interruptible customers to shave 1,100 megawatts of demand within 10 minutes, ERCOT said. Interruptible customers are generally large industrial customers who are paid to reduce power use when emergencies occur.

No other customers lost power during the emergency, ERCOT said."

That's how a smart grid would work, except on a wider and much quicker basis, so that no interuption occurs. A renewable smart grid would anticipate the weather related load and store heat in homes before the peak occured in this case.

http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog John Schneider, Northern Wisconsin

by amazingdrx at 11:48 AM on 28 Feb 2008

safety verses the wind

The shutdown of the Florida reactors was an automatic safety precaution. It is a part of a system that prevents nuclear accidents, that automatically comes into play if an abnormal situation arrises/ Situations that might trigger a nuclear accident. The system is fool proof, so operators cannot over ride it, as operators did prior to the Three Mile Island. The wind has no such excuse. It just didn't blow. And that is the problem with Texas wind. Most of the time it just doesn't blow, and when it does it can stop blowing real fast. This is a regular thing in Texas. Automatic, accident prevention shutdowns at nuclear plants are rare.

Charles Barton

by Charles Barton at 11:50 AM on 28 Feb 2008

Supplies are all vulnerable in some way...

And yet, the shutdown at the substation still effected more people than the wind cutoff did.

It just goes to prove that all forms of electrical generation have drawbacks and all forms are vulnerable to outages. Rememebr the outages along the West Coast a few years back? The rolling blackouts? That wasn't caused by disruptions of renewables, it was caused by a supply problem with conventional energy supply sources.

by Tasermons Partner at 11:59 AM on 28 Feb 2008

Instability

The fact is that with ever increasing storms of ever increasing intensity due to GHG, all grids are vulnerable. so every home or building needs backup emergency power.

A smart grid would shut down only the damaged section of a grid and supply emergency power to the rest until the problem is fixed.

Old style centralized grids can never do that. They are inherently unstable with no control over loads or accidents. Phone calls and repair trucks take too much time to respond to changing conditions.

Smart grids also allow storage and load response that lowers peak demand, and that uses less backup power. Allowing renewables to provide more. Smart grids also fit well with conservation.

http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog John Schneider, Northern Wisconsin

by amazingdrx at 11:20 PM on 28 Feb 2008

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