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by vancan1ty 1948 days ago
It is simple to see what energy source is pulling above its weight and what energy source is pulling below its weight.

Go to here: https://www.eia.gov/beta/electricity/gridmonitor/expanded-vi... , select "daily" view and put in 60 days to get a more representative sample.

on 12/19/2020 -- looks to be a fairly typical Texas winter day

natural gas production was 331660 megawatthours

wind was 191415 megawatthours

for a ratio of 1.73 gas/wind

this appears to be fairly typical numbers on a daily basis over the winter -- actually on a number of days wind surpasses gas

on 2/16/2021

natural gas 692091

wind 90087

for a ratio of 7.68 gas/wind

natural gas 2/16 vs natural gas 12/19 is ratio 2.09

wind 2/16 vs wind 12/19 is ratio 0.47

so as expected during an inclement weather event natural gas ramped up and wind ramped down. natural gas just didn't ramp up enough to pick up all the slack from increased demand and ramped down renewables.

"I get that wind + solar can't cover everything, but right now what we're seeing is massive failures from gas. In a universe where we had more wind + solar, there could likely be more energy going around right now." -- Wind is failing much worse than gas from an objective power generation standpoint. All wind has going for it is the tyranny of low expectations.