Wind farms help smooth power demand during Texas heatwave

A story in the Austin American-Statesman said that recently installed coastal wind farms — as opposed to the larger West Texas wind generation facilities — have provided crucial power at just the right time to avoid blackouts and interruptions of power in the midst of Texas’ ongoing heatwave. In West Texas, the paper said, the winds tend to die down on summer afternoons. Coastal breezes, however, track the rising demand for electricity during the afternoon. The state’s onshore wind farms south of Corpus Christi, which benefit from the coastal winds, account for about 13 percent of local grid operator ERCOT’s total wind generation capacity, but they were providing as much as 70 percent of its wind power last week.