|
One aspect that intrigues me is it's well positioned to take advantage of solar power. I think solar capacity is growing faster than any state and it's behind only California now? I live in Chicago and just got finished with a 10F degree week, and I was sitting there feeling bad about how much natural gas my house was burning to stay warm. There are plenty of weeks here, where I have to raise the temperature in the house 60F degrees, whereas the worst in Texas is probably only a difference of a few dozen, tops. On top of which, cooling like that is vastly more efficient than warming. Heat pumps are getting to be useable at these low temperatures, and somewhat more efficient than just burning the fuel, but not nearly as efficient at cooling from, say, 100 to 80. But the biggest difference is that when climate control needs are the highest here, we have the least sun: in the winter, at night. Whereas in Texas when the climate needs are the highest (in the summer, in the daytime), they have the most sun. There's something sort of pleasing about that to me. > Texas heat In other words, as someone who's a solar power optimist, dealing with Chicago cold, I feel like that's not such a drawback. Of course, somewhere sunny and comfortable like California might be best, but who can afford that. |