Interview with Jason Shaw

Alex: Hello! Can you introduce yourself, where you are, and what you do?

Jason Shaw: Hello. My name is Jason Shaw. I’m a master electrician in Texas. I’m also a certified solar PV installer. One of my many hats is that I’m a service technician for a solar farm. I’m at one of the farms. Check out what’s behind me.

Alex: Where?

[Jason moves cameras to show an array of solar panels set up on a field. The sky is completely clear and sunny]

Alex: Where is that area?

Jason: It’s in London. Not England.

Alex: London, not in England, okay!

Jason: In Texas, haha.

Alex: It seems a bit warmer there. How are the temperatures?

Jason: It’s in the 70’s. It’s ironic because just a few days it was 11 degrees.

Alex: Wow.

Jason: That’s Texas!

Alex: So it’s better in Texas now with the electricity? It’s been restored?

Jason: Yes, everything is okay now.

Alex: There has been a lot of talk last week, it’s simmering down now, but the talk was on the fact that Texas is an energy independent state, reliant on natural gas, wind, solar, so can you explain what your view is on renewable energy in Texas? Is it reliable or not reliable? What happened? I’m curious about your view.

Jason: My view is positive and I think we need more renewable energy because it helps to reduce pollution in our environment from coal. We need to reduce that and replace it with farms like this one. We need to increase the amount of farms. In the past we had very little but now we’re at 2.3% with renewables. The majority is wind farms. Now you brought up the crisis last week with electricity shutdowns. This solar farm was shut down as well. Because there was no sun and there was icing on the panels. You can see the dirt on the surface.

[Jason points to the panels]

So, the ice sticks to the panels because of the cold. It’s similar to car windows with the ice buildup. Then there is snow. We had three winter events. It rained at first for two days. That caused icing. Then the snow came and stuck on it. When the power came off, with the blackout, this generator also shut down. It means the solar panels can’t shift back and forward in an east to west direction to get the most sun. Usually it is at a horizontal position overnight. It’s so the winds won’t rip it off. So the ice and snow built up on it. With no energy, it can’t shift and therefore the snow couldn’t come off.

The same thing happened with wind farms. The ice built up on it, on wind blades as well.

Alex: Some people said windmills are not reliable, but you did mention to me that there are other cold climates, including Alaska, that have windmills but it has to do with lubricants or how much money is invested in “cold-proofing.” Does Texas have to be cold-proof now? Or?

Jason: Like I said, there is a tradeoff. Understand this: cold weather doesn’t often happen in Texas. We deal mostly with the heat. It’s hot during the summertime. That’s what the system is designed here, for hot weather. Not much cold weather here. It’s not true that wind turbines are unreliable. They can be reliable. It depends on how much you invest in things like weather icing equipment. Things like heat lubrication. Windmills require oil to keep it running and stay cool. If there is cold weather with freezing temperatures, you would have to replace the lubrication to withstand that. But that’s just for five days. After that, it warms up to 70 degrees again. That kind of oil is not suitable for hot weather because it’s rated for cold weather. We have over 10,700 different turbines all over Texas. How many technicians do we have in the U.S.? Only 4,700. That’s not many. Can we replace all of it in a two-week frame with advance warning that there will be freezing temperatures?

Alex: What is the impact of what happened last week on Texas energy? Oil, renewables, going forward? Natural gas…

Jason: That kind of discussion isn’t the first time. It’s been talked about in 2011 and several more times in history. There have been proposals for winterization. But who is going to pay for the costs? They are just proposals, they are not mandatory. So that’s the problem. Now the state governor, Abbott, will look at this and provide incentives, financial support, to help with winterization. Remember, the generators are privately-owned here. So the providers have to pay for winterization. But is it worth the costs? The cold doesn’t happen that often. So it’s a balance, there are tradeoffs.

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Alex: What happened last week was serious with almost 30 or 40 people dying. There was a serious crisis. So should the state or the feds get involved and require winterization, to not allow the providers to debate the costs, but rather to force them to do it? Do you think that will happen?

Jason: I doubt it. The state of Texas will mandate it, but on a federal level? I don’t know. It’s not under federal oversight. But we do have administrative rules. You can add rules such as on pollution. It’s not completely isolated, the grid itself, there are still some regulations over it. It is possible that things like winterization will be added to it. It could happen, but the question is cost. Who pays for it? Some companies find themselves not making enough money from power generation and are leaving the industry. That is an issue.

Alex: Wow. It’s sad what happened, but the lessons for the future, with climate change, there are potential impacts. But you’re here to say renewable energy is good and reliable, you just have to winterize it. That’s the point.

Jason: Right.

Alex: And it costs a lot of money, too. Not enough staff. So that.

Jason: ERCOT prefers 100% renewable energy. That’s the goal, but only if you can. But the problem is with intermittency with nature, such as when there’s no sun, there’s no electricity. If there’s no wind, what do you do? So you have to offset that in a balance.

Alex: So you need to have it all.

Jason: Yes, all of the above.

Alex: Natural gas, oil, it’s nice to have all the options. But renewables, it’s cool, it’s clean. Yeah.

Jason: Yes, For normal times, yes.

Alex: Thank you so much for helping me understand a little more. It’s cool to see you working there. Can you show the farm one more time?

Jason: Sure.

[Shows solar arrays. There are dozens of solar panels]

Jason: See the machines behind me? That’s the inverter. It converts what the solar arrays receive and turns it into AC. Because the solar panels produce DC and we need to convert to AC to feed into the grid. That’s how it works.

Alex: The solar panels are enough to power, like, 100 homes? Or? I’m curious.

Jason: 10 or 11 homes.

Alex: 10 or 11 homes?

Jason: 10 to 11.

Alex: From that solar farm, it’s enough to power 10 to 11 homes? That’s cool! That’s cool.

Jason: This is a small farm. There are many others that’s bigger than this.

Alex: Got it. Wow. Nice. Thank you so much, Jason Shaw, for your time.