14 DAY TRIAL // Words has it that wind power is currently somewhat of a hero in Texas. Kind of like a Chuck Norris of renewables, if one might be so bold as to say so.
Not to beat about the bush, it appears that, thanks to wind farms up and running across the state, Texas managed to make it through the record freeze that hit the United States without experiencing any major power outages.
Consequently, the state did not find itself in an emergency scenario, Clean Technica explains.
Media reports explain that the cold weather that hit the state at the beginning of the week, on Monday, left the state's grid operator with no choice except implement an emergency plan.
Thus, wind farms in the state, and especially those in West Texas, were made to contribute more to the grid than they normally would have.
The result was that, despite the fact that some power plants were shut down and local temperatures dropped to a considerable extend on Tuesday, the state's grid managed to cope with the increase in electricity demand and no major incidents were reported.
According to the same source, several other regions in the United States managed to stay afloat during the record freeze thanks to energy provided by wind farm.
More precisely, reports say that, at the time when temperatures first began to plummet in the country's Upped Midwest, wind farms stepped in and provided the power needed to meet the demand of roughly 6 million households.
A high wind energy output was also documented in the Mid-Atlantic region. This increase in the amount of electricity produced by wind farms was more than welcomed given the fact that, thanks to the harsh weather, some local power plants failed to perform as efficient as was expected of them.
Specialists wish to stress that, for the time being, the majority of the power outages that the United States experiences on a yearly basis are due to severe weather conditions. If global warming is to foster more such extreme phenomena, the country would do well to secure its power grid.