Electricity is probably one of the most important modern-day conveniences man has ever experienced. Just look around and take note of everything using electricity. It’s amazing to think how the ability to harness this natural power affects our lives. Cheap, easily available electricity is one of the reasons the quality of life in the United States is well above the vast majority of the world.
The Biden administration and the rest of the hate-America crowd are working overtime to destroy our access to cheap, abundant energy.
If you lived in Texas during the winter of 2021 you remember the extreme winter blast that sent the entire state of Texas into record breaking cold temperatures. Texans turned up the heat demanding electricity like never before, but this demand created a shortage of power and produced black-outs throughout the entire state.
Why did Texas run out of electricity and what can we do in Mississippi to ensure we never have the same experience?
Texas has fallen prey to the religion of renewable energy and in 2021 it left them in the cold. Those who worship at the alter of renewable energy tell us we must transition our energy grid away from coal, nuclear or natural gas to solar and wind. They claim solar or wind generated energy is cheap and better for the environment. But Texas proved renewable energy is neither, cheap, reliable or even available when you need it.
I have personal experience with renewable energy. I’ve install solar on my workshop at our farm and plan to install solar on our new home we are currently building. What I’ve learned about solar power is that it is unreliable and expensive. In Mississippi solar panels are only expected to generate power about 4.5 hours/day. So that leaves almost 20 hours of the day that we must use some other form of energy. In our case we must buy power from the power company that other 20 hours and sometimes even during the day if we are using more power than our solar panels can generate.
Here is a graph depicting a typical day and how much power we produce
June 3, 2023 was a hot sunny day in north Mississippi, so our solar system generated as much power as it possible could. But even on a good day it only produces power during the middle of the day. So during the morning, late afternoon and evening we have to buy power from the grid.
You may ask about batteries. Batteries would be a great addition to our system and we plan to add a bank of batteries so we can store extra power produced during the day and use it at night. But batteries are extremely expensive, they will cost almost as much as the rest of the system.
Solar with batteries might be an answer for me at home but its not an answer for the entire state. The power grid does not store power because it is impossible to have a battery bank large enough. Power companies must generate the amount of power needed for that moment, so if they are depending on solar their power source is unreliable.
Solar is not reliable enough to create a base-load of power nor is it flexible enough to supply the peaks of usage. Which means when the Public Service Commission approves a solar farm they are ensuring the power supplied to Mississippians will be more expensive and less reliable and the Biden agenda of leaving everyone in the dark will continue to move forward.
The majority of power produced for Mississippians is produced by natural gas. A natural gas power plant can easily be turned up to produce more power when needed. If we fall for the renewable energy lie and shut down our natural gas plants we will find ourselves in the cold just like Texas.
The Public Service Commissioners are responsible for ensuring our state has a steady supply of cheap, reliable power. To accomplish this goal they must resist the pressure put on them by the Biden administration and those who worship at the feet of the renewable energy gods.
By the way - There are two candidates for Northern District Public Service Commissioner, Chris Brown and Tanner Newman. Newman has received thousands of dollars from solar farm companies for his campaign. There is little doubt about where his loyalty lies, and it is not with the people of north Mississippi.
Mississippi needs cheap, reliable power.
Being as Mississippians live through some of the hottest, most humid summers in the United States, I agree wholeheartedly. Losing the ability to cool a home for even a day or two during our hottest day could cause extreme symptoms and even death, especially in our most vulnerable populations, like babies and the elderly. The fact of the matter is the Biden Administration has taken the worst possible approach. The US should be looking into Nuclear Energy. People hear the word and it sounds terrifying, but if you read up on it, it's actually extremely safe. Of course, if we used nuclear energy, people may not have large bills to pay for electricity, and we can't have that, now can we? 🙄
Excellent info as we work to prep for what’s to come as well as weigh important data.