Georgetown's Green Energy Adventure

There is a very informative piece in the Wilcosun today describing the availability of wind generated electricity supplied to the Texas Electric grid during a summer day.

Georgetown has broadcast to the world that all electricity consumed within Georgetown in 2017 would be generated by solar and wind sources. With the impending bankruptcy of SunEdison, the city's contracted supplier of solar generated electricity, it looks less and less likely that one half of Georgetown's demand will be met by solar. The total current demand is approximately 180 megawatts.

Let us examine just how much wind generated electricity Georgetown can expect to receive via their 20-year deal with EDF Renewables signed in early 2014. EDF Renewables is to furnish 144 megawatts on demand. The city does not share how much wind generated electricity they are receiving from EDF, so we have to construct an estimate.

From the Wilcosun article today, it is observed from the following chart that on August 15, 2015 between noon and 6pm, less than 2500 megawatts out of 15,000 megawatt rated capability was available.

This is 16.7%. Therefore if 16.7% of EDF Renewables contracted capacity of 144 megawatts is available, that means wind supplies only about 24 megawatts out of the required 180 megawatts. This is a far cry from being fossil fuel independent. Where is the additional power going to come from?

In the spirit of transparent government, the city needs to share the relevant information with it's citizens so that the citizens are informed and supportive or not of being a "green energy" community.