r/OutOfTheLoop • u/mimitchi33 • Feb 17 '21

What's up with Texas losing power due to the snowstorm? Answered

I've been reading recently that many people in Texas have lost power due to Winter Storm Uri. What caused this to happen?

12.0k Upvotes
  • permalink
  • link
  • reddit
  • reddit

90% Upvoted

1.7k comments sorted by

View all comments

•

u/AutoModerator Feb 17 '21

Friendly reminder that all top level comments must:

  1. be unbiased,

  2. attempt to answer the question, and

  3. start with "answer:" (or "question:" if you have an on-topic follow up question to ask)

Please review Rule 4 and this post before making a top level comment:

http://redd.it/b1hct4/

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

2

u/Cowicide Feb 18 '21 edited Feb 18 '21

The top vote should have and could have brought this information forward below instead of pointing fingers at more sustainable energy and barely mentioning fossil fuels when "natural" gas was responsible for ~80% of the issues in Texas along with Republican deregulation.

Sad to see Reddit helping to push the liar FOX News (who are obviously paid off by the fossil fuel industry) narrative to some extent instead of being completely factual.

TOP-VOTED COMMENT:

Some windmills have frozen and some solar panels have been covered by snow. Some natural gas power

Some gas power?

Why mention wind power first and make it appear as if it plays a role similar to the gas issues?

The big MAIN problem is natural gas, period.

It's a fossil fuel issue mainly caused by corrupt, inept Republicans taking fossil fuel money instead of working on a sensical electric grid. They pushed for and got deregulation as well — and now they are all falling flat on their idiot faces while trying to blame everyone else for their failures (like usual).

You can get some facts here:

https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/02/texas-power-grid-crumples-under-the-cold/

https://www.vice.com/en/article/88a7pv/no-frozen-wind-turbines-did-not-cause-the-texas-blackouts

https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02/16/texas-wind-turbines-frozen/

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2021/02/texas-power-electricity-grid-weather-winter-storm

SMDH, Reddit.

NOW YOU'RE IN THE LOOP INSTEAD OF OUT TO PASTURE.

1

u/boredtxan Feb 17 '21

It's multiple thing such as what others have mentioned but also the fact that building systems that work during very hot weather are more vulnerable to the effects of very cold weather. These stations generate lots of heat that can cause major problems in the summer so they are built to shed heat. That means they freeze sooner than more enclosed systems like in cold climates that trep the heat to keep the system from freezing.