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Michael E. Webber Profile picture
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20 Aug, 10 tweets, 6 min read
I am waiting to board a plane to Iceland, and frankly I’m a little disappointed that no one‘s dressed as a Viking in the waiting area. Image
Update: we landed in Iceland before breakfast and the first thing we did after we got off the plane was take a hike up a mountain to check out this volcano that’s newly active after 800 years. Incredible.
Also, check out the tires on this cool Mercedes in Iceland: I would love to see it drive on @EvilMopacATX Image
Art Deco hydropower in Iceland. Clean, renewable, beautiful electricity. Six 45 MW Francis turbines and penstocks buried in the mountain.
Just a few more shots of the hydroelectric facility. ImageImageImageImage
The word geyser in English comes from this spot in Iceland.
It is fun to reconnect with a former @WebberEnergy student Binni Olafsson to tour Iceland’s sights including a geyser, Viking farm, hydroelectric plant and incredible waterfall. ImageImageImageImage
I don’t want to make @TimMLatimer jealous but I got to visit an important geothermal combined heat and power plant today. Incredible.
A geothermal plant, a CO2 sequestration site, a transmission line with sheep, and wind/rain/fog. Iceland. ImageImageImageImage
Just some other cool stuff in Iceland. I love this place. ImageImageImageImage

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More from @MichaelEWebber

Michael E. Webber Profile picture
23 Aug
@bradplumer Okay, here goes. We will solve this because:

1) customers demand it
2) employees demand it
3) investors demand it
4) many (but not all) policymakers at municipal, state/regional, and national levels are pushing for it. And those recalcitrant ones in opposition are losing hold.
@bradplumer The world has faced difficult global challenges before: WWII, the Cold War, the Ozone Hole. And we solved those challenges EVEN though there were significant stakeholders in opposition to change. Eventually those holdouts lost. The world came together and solved it.
@bradplumer People forget how hard the Cold War was. It seemed like a great unsolvable problem--it took multinational coalitions and 3-5 decades. But we did it. Climate Change is a multinational multidecade problem and we can solve this one, too.
Read 22 tweets
Michael E. Webber Profile picture
14 Jul
It is very costly for the TX power producers (wind, solar, nuclear, coal, and gas) to underperform.

But for TX gas suppliers it is very lucrative to underperform. TX gas production down dropped 50% (80% in the Permian!) yet profits skyrocketed.

bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
This is the heart of the problem: Wind, solar, nukes, coal & gas power providers have a strong $$$ incentive to winterize & improve reliability b/c their lack of production was costly.

Gas suppliers made a handy profit from the flimsiness of their system. So why winterize?
BTW, I need to be clear here to differentiate local gas distribution companies (your gas utility) who delivered gas consistently to our homes (saving lives) and the gas industry that extracts and moves gas from wells/storage to the customers (including those gas utilities).
Read 8 tweets
Michael E. Webber Profile picture
3 May
Texas vs California 2009 & 2019 @TheEconomist

TX today is like 1980s CA in terms of population (~30M) & politics (Republican).

Other than stints in Paris & Lausanne, Switzerland I have lived in TX or CA my entire life so this tension between their two examples fascinates me.
NOTE: California is symbolized with a surfboard in both instances. Texas with a cowboy hat. And, Texas has a petroleum-fueled jetski for transportation while CA's mode is propelled by renewable wave energy.
I've lived in TX for 3+ decades and in CA for 1+ decade. Both are amazing states.

A key difference: Texans are obsessed w/ CA, but Californians don't think about TX at all.

TX politicians rant about CA all the time for example w/slogans like "Don't California My Texas"
Read 16 tweets
Michael E. Webber Profile picture
30 Apr
Looks like someone made enough money from high gas prices over a few days during the Texas energy crisis to reduce debt and increase dividends.
BTW, buried in this story is that Chevron raised its dividend and Continental Resources reinstated its dividend. It's heartwarming to know that Texans freezing to death is good for business.
I'm reading through the filings for Continental Resources. They swung from a Q1 2020 loss of $200M to a Q1 2021 profit of $400M DESPITE producing 15% less energy. Keep in mind that Q1 2020 was barely touched by COVID. This shows how profitable the Texas Energy Crisis was.
Read 10 tweets
Michael E. Webber Profile picture
23 Apr
The Texas Oil & Gas Association (TXOGA) paid ENVERUS to prepare a report.

The report says gas = good & wind/electricity = bad

Are you surprised that a consulting company gave its customer a report that makes them look good?

The report is highly flawed. Let’s dig in. [THREAD]
Main problem: It says that gas supply disruptions were because of power outages rather than the other way around.

But that doesn’t make sense from an engineering perspective: gas supplies started to fail Feb 10-12 & load shedding in ERCOT didn’t begin until 1:20 a.m. Feb 15.
The report makes a fundamental mistake, confusing OUTAGES for LOAD SHED. There are always outages, but rarely load shed.

This mistake undermines the entire logic of the report's conclusions. This sequence (gas failed first, power failed second) is critical, yet they missed it.
Read 13 tweets
Michael E. Webber Profile picture
21 Apr
In 2009 TX had <7 MW of total installed solar capacity, almost entirely rooftop PV and 0 MW utility-scale.

In 2021 installed solar is 8+ GW (up >1000x) of utility-scale alone, not including rooftop PV.

That TX would eventually dominate the solar market was entirely obvious.
Here is an article I wrote for @ASES_Solar "Solar Today" magazine in November/December 2009 where my co-author Erin Keys and I explain the positive fundamentals of the TX solar market and predicted "don't be surprised if Texas takes the lead in solar generation."
What are the fundamentals that make Texas such a hotspot for solar farms?

*Lots of cheap, flat sunny land

*Robust transmission infrastructure

*Competitive markets that reward low marginal cost generators

*Ease of permitting/construction

*Weak enviro opposition (cont'd)
Read 7 tweets

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