The rich elite.

Yep, that's ALL they care about... nobody else.

FWIW

WALTER784 said:

When it comes to reliable baseload power, most of humanity has only three choices:

hydrocarbons—coal, oil, and gas

nuclear power

abandon modern civilization for a pre-industrial standard of living.

Don't forget geothermal and hydroelectric in the places where that is cheaply produced. Such as Iceland, which runs entirely on geothermal, and some areas along major waterways with significant elevation drop over a short distance and extremely high volumes of water at that high hydrostatic head.

And of course, a lot of renewable and fossil fuels failed spectacularly from February 14-20 2021.

https://youtu.be/30Xhk_gZ27o

I remember the 1993 Texas freeze vividly. 

I was in Houston in Nov. 1993, asleep in a hotel. The company I was visiting was right across the street. 

I woke up at 5:30AM to the sound of a gunshot. I immediately looked outside but didn't see any movement outside when all of a sudden, 3 minutes later, I heard another gunshot. So, I glued myself to the window looking outside when I actually witnessed the 3rd gunshot, but it wasn't a gun... it was the branch of a large oak tree on the lawns of the hotel that broke off and hit the ground. The weather had frozen the oak limbs and the frost/ice on the tree limbs were just too heavy and they broke off and hit the ground. 

15 minutes later, a really large explosion occurred and when I looked outside the window again, I noticed the transformer on top of one of the power poles was smoldering with smoke pouring out from the top and our hotel electricity went out.

15 minutes later, the hotel's auxiliary generator kicked in and we had power back on at the hotel.

I stayed in my room looking out the window at an onramp to a nearby freeway and watched in amazement as car after car after car attempted to climb that ramp to get on the freeway, but time and time again, they would start slipping partially up the ramp and slide... sometimes sideways back down the ramp. I think I saw more than 6 or 7... maybe even more cars attempt to climb the icy ramp, but nobody ever made it to the top. This was all before 6:30AM. 

Texas just ain't used to ice and snow!

But as it was a weekend, I didn't have much of anything to do until Monday morning when I was back at the customer's site again.

FWIW 

I'm probably one of the few people in the region who actually owns sets of tire chains for my vehicles. I had to order them on-line because of course they aren't stocked in any local / regional store.

I've had to use them maybe 3 times in the past 2 decades, but boy howdy, when I needed them, they were a total game changer, providing solid traction and control going down the road when the highway was deserted otherwise, or littered with wrecks that had slid off into the pastures.

These Wind Turbines Need Diesel Generators and Often Draw Power Instead of Generating It…

BY STEVE MACDONALD
23 MAY 2023

These Wind Turbines Need Diesel Generators and Often Draw Power Instead of Generating It... - Granite Grok

FWIW

When you need them you need them and can’t stop to buy them right away. It’s smart to have chains available.

Clearly there are some big design flaws in that system. When I worked on a wind turbine design about 40 years ago, we had it where it was "black start" capable.

That means, all you need to do to start producing electricity is spin the turbine. Once it reaches a certain speed, it can be synched to the power grid and switch it in.  If the grid is dark, it can regulate to 60 hz at the proper voltage and take a load.

Usually you need the chains on a day that obtaining them will take you a couple of weeks. But most people wouldn't be buying chains online in advance of winter in the South especially, where ice and snow is not a frequent thing, and many winters may pass between severe ice and snow events.

$1,661.87 in cats (ROCKETMAN_S) said...

Clearly there are some big design flaws in that system.

Major design flaws... not to mention the spewing of oil..

The green energy that wasn't as green as everybody expected it to be. (* CHUCKLE *)

FWIW