Google-backed solar project opens in Texas and is one of the largest in the US

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: The Independent

11 hours ago


One of the largest solar projects in the U.S. opened in Texas on Friday, backed by what Google said is the largest solar electricity purchase it has ever made.

Google executive Ben Sloss said at the ribbon cutting, about two hours south of Dallas, that the corporation has a responsibility to bring renewable, carbon-free electricity online at the same time it opens operations that will use that power. Google expects to spend $16 billion through 2040 globally to purchase clean energy, he said.

U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, who attended, said the solar project is a posterchild for the administration's efforts to incentivize manufacturers and developers to locate energy projects in the U.S.

“Sometimes when you are in the middle of history, it’s hard to tell, because you are in the middle of it,” she said. “But I'm telling you right now that we are in the middle of history being made.”

Read more: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/google-texas-solar-project-b2631967.html

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Link to tweet

Secretary Jennifer Granholm
@SecGranholm
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Excited to be in Texas highlighting the amazing progress we’re making via partnerships like the one between Google and SB Energy.

The Biden-Harris Investing in America agenda is working—driving private sector investment, boosting clean energy manufacturing, and creating jobs. 🇺🇸
Secretary Granholm views solar modules during a tour of the SB Energy Orion Projects O&M Building in Buckholts, Texas with representatives from SB Energy and Google.
Secretary Granholm delivers remarks at SB Energy’s ribbon cutting ceremony to celebrate the successful operations of its utility-scale solar projects in Buckholts, Texas.
Goats graze land surrounding solar panels in a field outside of the SB Energy Orion Projects O&M Building in Buckholts, Texas.
6:49 PM · Oct 18, 2024

[Farmer-Rick]

1. Not a good idea to do this in Texas

The GOP will pass legislation against you just out of spite even if you do bribe them.

Also Texas is not known for good maintenance of their electrical grid.

But I like the idea.

Also, I use the same kind of weed and grass control as shown in the pictures. I wonder if they really will keep up the herd. If they do, it will work like a charm.

[EX500rider]

2. "Also Texas is not known for good maintenance of their electrical grid." Better then some it seems

In 2021, Texas produced more energy than any other state, accounting for almost 12 percent of the nation's total net energy generation.

California stands out as the state with the most power outages between 2002 and 2022. This state had a total of 94 outages, 28 more than second-place holder, Florida. The likelihood of an outage is much higher in California than in any other state.

[Farmer-Rick]

4. Except they have a really bad reputation

"It’s become a familiar cycle: A powerful storm sweeps through a swath of Texas and takes the electric system down in its grip...

Thousands of Texans then sit in the dark for days — in either the blistering heat or frigid cold — waiting for utility crews to survey and fix the damage so electricity can start flowing again.

Such power outages are likely to continue.

That’s because the massive network of equipment that moves electricity across the state and then to individual Texas homes and businesses is unprepared for the severe weather expected in years ahead, experts say."

https://www.texastribune.org/2024/07/18/texas-energy-grid-power-outages-climate-change-infrastructure/

Maybe other states have it worse. And I feel sorry for them too.

It's weird about those power outages in California. My daughter has lived there for years and has never complained about a power outage. She lives in LA. Maybe she's lucky?

Here in very rural TN we have power outages almost every time we get a thunderstorm. But I have power back up for it.

[EX500rider]

5. I just spent five days without power or internet camping in my house

But a hurricane did hit St Pete pretty hard so it's understandable

[Farmer-Rick]

7. Wow sorry to hear it

Yeah, weather wiping out our infrastructure is going to be a permanent issue.

I just got my water back here in East TN. It was contaminated from the hurricane and we were boiling it for 2 weeks. It's so nice to be able to drink it again.

[Old Crank]

9. Evidently they are going to join the multistate net work

Because of that problem.

[et tu]

3. i have goats too (nds)

and they do an awesome job of keeping
things tidy!

[hunter]

8. Solar and wind power are the best thing that ever happened for the natural gas industry...

... and the gas industry knows it.

Any ignorant Texas politician who disagreed would probably face a back-room "reeducation" by blunt object. That might not change what they tell their gullible constituents, but they'd certainly never say "NO" to the likes of Elon Musk, Waren Buffet, Jeff Bezos, or Google.

Projects like this will only prolong our dependence on natural gas and do nothing in the long run to reduce the total amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses humans eventually dump into the atmosphere.

The best capacity factors claimed for large solar projects in the California deserts is 28%. (This is probably an exaggeration.) This means solar is unable to meet electrical demand 72% of the time. California burns gas when the sun isn't shining.

The capacity factors for typical home solar power systems in California is less than 20%, often much less.

Wind and solar power alone are not economically viable without fossil fuels, especially natural gas.

The actual useful output of this scheme is not equivalent to an 875 megawatt nuclear or fossil fuel plant running 24 hours a day, seven days a week, as this article implies. The carbon intensity of the overall hybrid system is at best about 4/5 that of a purely natural gas fueled system. This project is 875 megawatts of intermittent solar power applied to 875 megawatts of filthy fossil fuel power as greenwash.

If google built an actual 875 megawatt nuclear power plant they wouldn't need the fossil fuel or solar power plants and their carbon intensity would be vastly reduced.

That is an entirely different nightmare, of course. Would nuclear powered Artificial Intelligence actually make our world a better place?

[wolfie001]

11. So, to sum it up.....

.....either way, the pooch is screwed.

[NNadir]

6. As always, the numbers behind this affectation are trivial.

From the text:

...In total, Google has contracted with clean energy developers to bring more than 2,800 megawatts of new wind and solar projects to the state, which it says exceeds the amount of power required for its operations there...

The big lies about solar and wind energy are always advanced using, illiterately, units of power Watts as opposed to units of energy, Joules.

The lie is advanced to pretend that this junk, all of which will be landfill within 25 years, fairly toxic landfill possibly depending on the types of solar cells used, offers continuous energy.

This is not true. The capacity utilization of solar and wind systems are typically below 30%, meaning if we agree that the upper limit will hold, 30%, meaning that this vast expanse of ruined land will produce as much as a single moderately sized thermal power plant will produce the equivalent electrical energy of an 840 Megawatt powerplant operated continuously.

Continuous power, not interrupted power, is required to run the servers that run Google.

This means that when the sun isn't shining, and the wind isn't blowing, situations commonly obtained, particularly because of a concept that is somehow difficult to have recognized in this kind of fossil fuel entrenchment, called "night," fossil fuels will be burned and the waste dumped directly into the planetary atmosphere, where it is killing the planet. (Google doesn't shut down because of the existence of "night." Anyone is free to check this out.)

The Germans have a term for windless nights, "Dunkelflaute"

This is marketing and nothing else, and actually represents a huge waste of money, part of an advertising budget.

The solar and wind affectation, at a cost of trillions of dollars, has done nothing, zero, zilch, to the address extreme global heating we are observing because of the lies we tell ourselves and each other.

It's lipstick on a rabid pig.

[patphil]

10. My wife and I recently drove through north Texas as part of our trip from NYS to Albuquerque.

We saw thousands of wind turbines, and actually saw 3 huge trucks, each carrying a turbine blade. They're still putting up more.
The most recent number I could find said there were over 19,000 wind turbines in Texas, and they accounted for 24% of the state's electricity.
And, they have the second largest number of solar panel installations in the nation.
I have to give Texas credit for leading in the area of "green" energy projects.
We realize that hundreds of thousands of birds are killed by wind turbines each year, but that is far less than the millions that dies in collisions with windows each year.
And, the number of birds killed by fossil fuel powered electrical generating facilities is far higher; in the order of 20 million+.
I'm not going to point to sources, a simple google search will give a large number of sources. I didn't feel that any one of them showed a complete result. So, look for yourself; the data is out there.
But I will say that all this carnage is a result of 340 million Americans living in an advanced civilization that relies on electricity to sustain it.
All we can do is try to mitigate the damage. There is no practical, all-encompassing solution.