The Chronicle blog, Fuel Fix, informs us that wind power, particularly that generated along the Texas Coast, has helped us substantially in the past few weeks avoid power blackouts during these days of high demand. Of particular note..
“Wind only accounts for about 11 percent of the state’s total power capacity, and last year only 8 percent of the power produced in Texas came from wind turbines.
But during the past week’s daily power crisis, officials with the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages the state’s main high voltage power grid, repeatedly touted wind power’s contributions during peak demand.
Typically ERCOT only expects about 800 megawatts of power to come from the 9,500 megawatts of wind turbines installed around the state. But wind’s contribution ranged from 1,300 megawatts to 2,400 megawatts during peak demand — including 2,000 MW last Wednesday, when the state set a new power demand record at 68,294 MW. It’s a big improvement from last summer, when only 650 MW of wind power was humming during the peak hours of Aug. 23, when Texas hit its 2010 record of 65,776 MW.”….
…Most of Texas’ wind farms, located in West Texas, reach their peak output in the evening, when the winds blow hardest. They do little for the state’s needs during the hottest afternoon hours and are so far removed from the areas of heaviest demand that they often have little to no impact.
But the growing number of wind projects along Texas’ coast has helped boost wind’s contribution during peak summer hours since coastal winds tend to pickup in the afternoons. As the land heats up during the day the air mass above it rises, pulling in the cooler air over the water and creating steady offshore winds…
Source: Fuel Fix
More coverage on this issue coming from around the state and national media can be found in this Texas Climate News article.