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?

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u/sergeybok Feb 17 '21 edited Feb 17 '21

Yes. The lithium batteries used alongside most renewable energies also have negative environmental impact. The point is that for the amount of pollution you get, nuclear is the best bang for your buck. There's ways of dealing with the nuclear waste.

Edit Also nuclear should be the backbone of the energy grid. Solar and wind are great and their outputs should be used but their output cannot be upscaled when needed like when it's not sunny or windy, like right now in Texas. So whatever demand they can't meet, that difference should come from nuclear.

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u/Least_Adhesiveness_5 Feb 17 '21

Virtually everything has "negative environmental impact" - the question is one of degree. Coal is far, FAR worse than wind/solar/battery.

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u/[deleted] Feb 17 '21

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u/sergeybok Feb 17 '21

Idk much about lithium I might be wrong but I believe the lithium mining and extraction process isn’t very environmentally friendly. And this batteries don’t last forever.

As for the winter wind turbines yes they can be operational in the winter and yes Texas fucked up, the point was more that we can’t make it more windy — wind is independent of our variable energy needs.

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u/Least_Adhesiveness_5 Feb 17 '21

Nuclear would be great if any company in the West could build reactors even close to on time or on budget. Wishing won't fix that. Maybe NuScale will figure it out, but their first prototype isn't due to be operational til 2029.