Earlier this week, extreme weather caused power outages for much of the central United States. Bitter cold led to increased demand for electricity while also forcing significant portions of electric generation offline, leaving millions of people across the Midwest, Great Plains and Texas in particular without electricity. Although many were quick to point to wind energy as the main cause, numerous sources of generation were impacted by the abnormally cold weather. According to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, about 16 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy, mostly composed of wind, was taken offline due to freezing conditions. Meanwhile, nearly 30 GW of thermal generation ...