Elon in Texas [speculation - is tesla helping in texas?]

[LoudMusic]

I wonder if Elon and crew are working on sales pitches for ERCOT.

(moderator note: edited thread title to be more descriptive of what it appears you are speculating. Do you have some other information on this topic to share or is this simply throwing something out there to have a discussion?)

 

[Tam]

I wonder if Elon and crew are working on sales pitches for ERCOT...

Australia used to have a blackout and Elon Musk was able to help in less than 100 days.

The US is richer than Australia so there should not be any blackout in the US!

 

[msm859]

I wonder if Elon and crew are working on sales pitches for ERCOT.

(moderator note: edited thread title to be more descriptive of what it appears you are speculating. Do you have some other information on this topic to share or is this simply throwing something out there to have a discussion?)

Hopefully Tesla will be able to power their plant off grid. Would be good to also have some Superchargers ready to go. People can stay in their Tesla and stay warm.

 

[Tam]

This is not its first Rodeo.

It experienced a winterized issue in 2011: Natural gas production can't function efficiently in extremely cold winter if it doesn't spend money to winterize.

Texas's advantage is it doesn't have to follow the Federal Rules of winterizing natural gas production and power plants (including nuclear). It is optional.

Fewer rules mean it's good for short-term business profit but at the expense of the population suffering.

In early February, they were producing 24 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day.

On Monday, it went down to 12 billion.

Texas largely relies on natural gas for power. It wasn’t ready for the extreme cold.

 

[holeydonut]

Remember that Thai soccer team trapped underground and Elon sent mini submarines? Then he called that one dude a pedo. Fun times.

 

[LoudMusic]

(moderator note: edited thread title to be more descriptive of what it appears you are speculating. Do you have some other information on this topic to share or is this simply throwing something out there to have a discussion?)

I'm more curious if Tesla intend to do more than build cars in Texas. I have no information - just speculation as you say.

 

[TEG]

I'm more curious if Tesla intend to do more than build cars in Texas. I have no information - just speculation as you say.

Texas was already home base for the Space-X Starship program, so that pulls Elon there...
SpaceX South Texas launch site - Wikipedia

Plus the richest man in the world (on paper) might appreciate living in a state with no state income tax as he eventually converts some of his TSLA into $$$$...

 

[Tam]

I'm more curious if Tesla intend to do more than build cars in Texas. I have no information - just speculation as you say.

Tesla is a clean energy company with solar and stationary batteries as well.

The issue is: Texas is anti clean energy and blames its problem on the "Green Deal" which it doesn't adopt.

Tesla has the ability to help Texas to avoid the blackout but how do you convince the leaders there?

 

[TEG]

There is also the thought that it makes sense to build luxury sedans in California, and big pickup trucks in Texas. He wants to be near the new factory that will conquer the next market segment.

He also appears to think that California has overreacted to COVID, and wanted to go some place that was more inclined to keep businesses open.

 

[CyberGus]

The issue is: Texas is anti clean energy and blames its problem on the "Green Deal" which it doesn't adopt.

Tesla has the ability to help Texas to avoid the blackout but how do you convince the leaders there?

Texas loves green energy. The grid is 2/3 coal and natural gas, with the rest as renewables (including "nukuler"). I'm paying extra for Austin Energy's "Green Choice" that supplies all my power from renewables and charges the appropriate rates to build out and maintain that infrastructure. The "combustion" electricity rates fluctuate with market prices.

The 2011 Texas grid failures (and the ones 10 year before that) were brief and mildly inconvenient. Both times a post-mortem report indicated "hey y'all, we need to winterize" but by then the political conversation had moved on and the will to spend was gone.

This time is different. I know some people going on 72+ hours without power with sub-freezing temps the whole time. Millions are impacted. Businesses are hurt. People have died. Now the water is running out and we're getting boil notices (without power, lol). Nobody is letting this go anytime soon.

And sure, Tesla can help. Renewables were never going to be able to entirely power the grid until large-scale storage was practical. But this is not a capacity problem per se, it's a lack of disaster planning.

 

[bob_p]

When this crisis is over, and a study has been completed on the Texas grid failure during this week's storm, what will likely happen:

1. ERCOT will be restructured - the top leadership and 1/3 of the Board of Directors doesn't even live in Texas.
2. Power plants will be required to winterize. It's understandable wind and solar could be offline during the combination of precipitation and very low temperatures over days - but the failure of the non-renewable plants should have been avoidable.
3. Battery storage should be added to handle the brief peaks during summer heat

Texas has a lot of wind and solar power generation - that needs to be coupled with energy storage that can hold that power for when wind and solar power isn't available - but that wouldn't have helped much this week, when the crisis lasted for 4-5 days.

 

[byeLT4]

I have a lot of 'red' friends on FB and boy they are throwing out the green conspiracy theories about how solar and wind caused all of this. I normally don't engage but on some I just had to say something. Is there a good place to find out energy facts vs more crap that skewed news outlets produce?

 

[Ampster]

The issue is: Texas is anti clean energy and blames its problem on the "Green Deal" which it doesn't adopt.

Most of Texas also does not belong to to any national interconnect. El Paso belongs to the Western Interconnect and El Paso did not have the same issues as the rest of Texas.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

Australia used to have a blackout and Elon Musk was able to help in less than 100 days.

The US is richer than Australia so there should not be any blackout in the US!

Populations:
South Australia: 1.677 million
Texas: 29 million

Scenario is slightly different.

 

[israndy]

Every problem is bigger in Texas, yee-ha!

 

[SMAlset]

I did see this article on Elon’s reaction and a brief story about a family who slept in their “camp mode” Tesla. Tried to bring up on FoxNews but couldn't seem to. Hopefully this link from Apple News will work.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk slams Texas energy agency as unreliable: 'not earning that R' — Fox News

also recall reading a news story that SpaceX in Boca Chica had to shut down at some point. Can you imagine his reaction if the Gigafactory in Austin had been built already and couldn’t stay open?

 

[gpez]

I did see this article on Elon’s reaction and a brief story about a family who slept in their “camp mode” Tesla. Tried to bring up on FoxNews but couldn't seem to. Hopefully this link from Apple News will work.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk slams Texas energy agency as unreliable: 'not earning that R' — Fox News

also recall reading a news story that SpaceX in Boca Chica had to shut down at some point. Can you imagine his reaction if the Gigafactory in Austin had been built already and couldn’t stay open?

If a battery factory can't stay open during a power outage I'd question a lot more things about the company

 

[HVM]

Yes?

 

[TEG]

Do we have any idea if the high profile California transplants (Elon, Joe Rogan, Larry Ellison, etc.) are toughing it out in Austin right now, or did they hop in their corp jets and head somewhere warmer with power and clean water?

 

[garrett5688]

Do we have any idea if the high profile California transplants (Elon, Joe Rogan, Larry Ellison, etc.) are toughing it out in Austin right now, or did they hop in their corp jets and head somewhere warmer with power and clean water?

I mean... what would YOU do with those options?