Isn't it wonderful? The wind is finally blowing in California...
Last edited Mon Jan 25, 2021, 12:55 AM - Edit history (1)
(Graphics in this and previous posts of mine may not be visible in Google Chrome, but should show up in Microsoft Edge, Firefox and Android.)
It appears that all of the wind turbines in the entire state California are producing as much energy as the two nuclear plants operating at Diablo Canyon are producing in two relatively small buildings along the coast.
Source: CAISO Supply Page (Accessed 1/20/21 3:50 pm)
I haven't seen this much wind energy very often in California in recent checks, most of which were around the winter solstice. But I heard that the wind is blowing in California, so hard that trucks are being over turned, so I decided to look.
It's something of a shame that because California is densely crisscrossed by copper power lines to collect all that wonderful so called "renewable energy" that they've had to shut some of those power lines because of, um, wind, and the consequent risk of fire, but one cannot have everything, can one?
As of this writing about 40 minutes later (16:40 PST to be precise) than when I downloaded the above graphic - I was called away to relish President Biden's Press Secretary's first press briefing, a thing of beauty - all of the wind turbines in California are producing 1,563 MW, but don't worry, be happy, at 12:20 they were producing 2,271 MW for a few minutes.
The two remaining nuclear reactors are producing as of this writing, 2,268 MW in two buildings, and have been consistently producing, without interruption, reliably roughly that amount of power all day long, +/- 4 MW.
Solar's been great today, and peaked out at 7,138 MW for a few minutes around 14:30 (2:30 PM) PST, but now, as the sun is falling, is down to 601 MW.
Don't worry, be happy. California, as of 16:45 (4:45) PM is "only" dumping 8,180 metric tons of carbon dioxide an hour to power its (partially shut) grid.
The Press Secretary for the President was very refreshing. She promised something we've been missing, "reality."
This post, by the way, is reality.
We are over 414 ppm of the dangerous fossil fuel waste carbon dioxide in the planetary atmosphere.
Shortly after I started writing here, January 2003, we were at around 375 ppm.
I'm looking forward to a new day, and I hope everyone else is too, but a new day is impossible without a serious day, and we haven't had too many of those.
