Yesterday I looked at a recent article in POWER Magazine on power generation capacity additions planned for 2022-2023. I have always respected POWER Magazine and I even give them credit for sparking my interest in electric power generation when I started reading POWER while in college. I have been a contributing editor for POWER and have had numerous articles I wrote published. So, when I see POWER Magazine becoming Politically Correct or “Woke” like many other respected publications, I become concerned.

Here below is the chart they published:

It looks innocent enough and it is backed up by the EIA as being factual. I think it is more important to lift up what is not said. That is that 78.3 Gigawatts is about 7% of the U.S.A.’s total generation “Capacity” but renewables are not Dispatchable and have low capacity factors when they are producing. For example, let me show a graph (below) from the EIA Real Time Grid in October 2021. Note that of the total generation of about 534,000 MW only about 5% is generated by solar and of course, this was during the daytime. Wind was slightly more but 80% of the generation of Bulk Power was from conventional gas, coal and nuclear. These are all Dispatchable forms of Bulk Power. Conventional, Dispatchable Bulk Power Generation is what powers American Industry and our lives. America depends on reliable power.

Lets go back to last January in the PJM Interconnection (Northeastern U.S.A.) Here is a screen shot of the electric power production during January 31, 2021. Remember January 2021? It was colder than normal and just a few weeks later Texas had their Backouts largely because of dependence on too much wind and solar capacity that was not available (not Dispatchable and not available due to ice and snow). The PJM Interconnection total generation at this moment was 123,512 MW. Renewables were 6,864 MW and most of the renewable power generation was from Hydro.

Getting back to POWER Magazine. They were kind enough to publish my Commentary from March 2021 which is here: https://www.powermag.com/blog/all-fuels-are-important-but-thermal-power-generation-is-still-number-1/ I stand behind these comments.

Also in January of 2021, another publication that I have great respect for, the Wall Street Journal produced a video on energy and electricity generation. I took a screen shot of that video and used it in my course at USCB-OLLI. It is copied below:

Conclusion:

Facts matter and even respected publications seem to have become Politically Correct or as is commonly referred to today as “Woke”. My concern is that irreparable harm has been done to America’s energy infra-structure and planning for the future. Why do I say this? Because if we look back on the past year, and the list of ten items below are from Andy May’s Blog site ₍₁₁₎ these are some of the policies that have been thrust on the people:

1. European wind died, and they had already closed their coal plants, thus forcing natural gas prices to skyrocket.
2. In Texas, windmills providing 30% of their power froze and the Texas grid came within minutes of total failure. More than 200 people died due to the storm and four million were left without power.
3. The UK Cop26 president, Alok Sharma, called on the world to “consign coal to history.” Instead, Russia, China, and India put off ending coal until after 2060. Joe Manchin ended Biden’s plan in the U.S.
4. In one of the worst timed policy moves in history, Biden promised to ban fracking and he canceled the Keystone XL pipeline. He ended up on his knees begging U.S. oil and gas companies, the Saudis, and anyone else he could find to produce more oil and gas.
5. The U.S.-based Nature Conservancy sold phony carbon offsets to publicly traded companies, like Blackrock, Disney, and JPMorgan.
6. Joe Manchin vetoed Biden’s plan to federalize the U.S. electricity grid, which would have allowed him to outlaw producing electricity with fossil fuels.
7. Western wildfires burned up Microsoft’s carbon offsets, which were forests in Oregon.
8. Blackrock says sustainability (environmental) investing is nonsense.
9. The Federal Reserve staff says no to Biden’s idea to use the Fed to kill lending to the fossil fuel industry.
10. An Associated Press poll says the public is not interested in paying more to stop human-caused climate change.

Dick Storm, December 30, 2021

References:

1. EIA Real Time U.S.A. Grid Electric Production: https://www.eia.gov/electricity/gridmonitor/dashboard/electric_overview/US48/US48
2.  EIA Short Term Outlook, Oct 2021: https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=49976
3. EIA Electricity Explained, Total U.S.A. Electric Generating Capacity 2020: https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/electricity/electricity-in-the-us-generation-capacity-and-sales.php
4. PJM Interconnection Real Time Electricity Production by Fuel: https://www.pjm.com
5. Dick Storm Short Course at USCB-OLLI Feb 2021, Energy and Electricity Generation
6. Net Zero Watch Press Release, News of Energy Policy  Failure in UK: https://mailchi.mp/c65f20c55714/declare-an-energy-emergency-or-risk-economic-disaster-boris-johnson-warned-185978?e=9e46528ac6
7. POWER Magazine Commentary, March 2021: Getting back to POWER Magazine. They were kind enough to publish my Commentary from March 2021 which is here: https://www.powermag.com/blog/all-fuels-are-important-but-thermal-power-generation-is-still-number-1/ I stand behind these comments.
8. Power Magazine December 2021 Article on Solar, Storage and Renewable Power: https://www.google.com/url?q=https://ai.omeclk.com/portal/wts/ucmcmsbyFjmbbEjs%255EcyzgrmcFjfNqFbdj3jgnzBHFHl&source=gmail&ust=1640952340990000&usg=AOvVaw3mbcbw4_Er9kDluBBUKOwV
9. Washington Free Beacon article on Solar Loan Guarantees: https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/biden-megadonor-scores-500-million-federal-loan-for-solar-company/
10. Junk Science Website on Environmental Policy Failures of 2021: https://junkscience.com/2021/12/unsung-zeroes-the-top-10-under-reported-climate-flops-of-2021/
11. Andy May Climate Change Blog: https://andymaypetrophysicist.com/2021/12/28/climate-change-2021/amp/