Interesting Links for 28-07-2019

[andrewducker]

Wind is outpacing coal as a power source in Texas for the first time

(tags:windpower Texas USA renewables )

Boris Johnson 'absolutely' rules out election before 31 October Brexit deadline

(tags:politics UK elections Europe doom )

Thousands without mobiles (or, worse, signal) could be frozen out of online payments

(tags:security phones banking UK europe )

US border official testifies that a 3-year-old might be a national security threat.

(tags:OhForFucksSake children immigration )

In case anyone was wondering what to get me for my birthday

(tags:penis walking )

Why are violent brawls breaking out on cruise ships?

(tags:alcohol holidays ocean ship )

"My (25M) subs (23F, 26F, 22M, 28M, 28M) have unionized"

(tags:relationships bdsm funny unions )

HS2: hated by some, halted in parts, but still making progress

(tags:hs2 trains transport uk )

Comments

Texas Wind

[danieldwilliam]

Texas has pretty good wind energy resources and lots of arable land that can be used for wind turbines.

It will be interesting to see how the politics of wind power shakes out in the US. Lots of Republican states have good renewable resources, both wind and solar. This means lots of opportunities for business and employment in those industries in those states. Texas, Wyoming, Kansas (I think) Utah, Colorado, Montana, the Dakotas and so on. There's no particular reason for those states or those electorates to back coal power and they have some gains to make in terms of local employment, lower electricity costs and their own intra-state balance of payments. Their interest in renewable energy is separate from any climate change considerations.

Re: Texas Wind

[andrewducker]

Ohio, on the other hand...
https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2019/7/27/8910804/ohio-gop-nuclear-coal-plants-renewables-efficiency-hb6

Re: Texas Wind

[danieldwilliam]

I saw that. That's special that is.

Ohio does have a lot of coal reserves and shale gas and some oil.

It's not crazy that they might agnostica about renewables.

Re: Texas Wind

[nojay]

From memory (it was a little while back) I read that Texas got a lot of investment in wind power from a gas tycoon who realised that moving away from coal and connecting a lot of intermittent renewable energy generators to the grid would necessitate burning a lot of backup gas which he was in a position to supply. I didn't read the Fine Article; did it mention how much gas Texas burns to generate electricity these days?

Britain these days burns very little coal to generate electricity. Yay! However we burn a lot of gas instead and we're probably going to need to burn a lot more gas in the future as we decommission our ageing AGR reactors (the two Hunterston reactors have been shut down for over six months now, they may never restart) and move more and more to electric vehicles which will need charging with gas-derived electricity rather than being fuelled with oil products.

Re: Texas Wind

[dewline]

Complications of the turnover process being acknowledged as such, I still have to say that seeing Texas industry moving along the road to better methods like this is a psychologically helpful thing right now.