Renewables Set New Records In Texas

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Renewables shattered records in Texas recently, despite vigorous and unrelenting opposition from the current federal and state governments. So-called Republicans are always bleating about “all of the above” solutions and how governments “should not be picking winners and losers” in the marketplace. What those arguments come down to is little more than excuses why fossil fuel companies should continue to receive billions in public funding while they degrade the environment to the point where most humans will no longer be able to survive. It is always fascinating to ponder how killing your customers can be a successful long term business strategy. The answer appears to be that anything that happens more than a few years from now is of no concern to capitalists and may be safely ignored.

Canary Media reports that so far this year, Texas is setting new records with its fleet of renewables that include wind, solar, and grid-scale energy storage. Sharp-eyed readers will note that Republicans in Congress can’t wait to roll back the federal incentives provided by the Inflation Reduction Act that have made many of those renewables possible. They are part of a “green new scam,” according to the alleged president. He and his supporters prefer the “dirty old scam” that pumps cubic yards of federal dollars into the pockets of fossil fuel companies so they can continue polluting the environment at will.

Living proof of this can be found in the latest machinations of the Texas legislature. As my colleague Tina Casey reported a few weeks ago, the Republican-dominated legislature in Texas is currently considering two bills aimed at impeding both wind and solar development. One is SB 714 and the other is SB 819, a reboot of the failed bill SB 624 from the last session. Both bills are “likely to stifle renewable development at a time when the state cannot keep up with increased energy demands,” advises the law firm K&L Gates. “If passed in its current form, SB 819 is likely to have a chilling effect on investors’ appetites to finance new projects or expand existing facilities and will likely negatively impact renewable projects that are operating within the state,” the firm elaborates. “SB 714 would erode the pricing benefits that correspond to the tax credit, including the ability of renewable facilities to offer negative pricing to the ERCOT market. Both bills would slow the growth of the renewable energy industry in Texas,” they conclude.

Zachary Shahan also reported last month that “Existing and expected utility-scale solar, wind, and battery storage projects will contribute over $20 billion in total tax revenue — and pay Texas landowners $29.5 billion — over the projects’ lifetimes, according to new data released by the Solar Energy Industries Association, Conservative Texans for Energy Innovation, Advanced Power Alliance, and the Texas Solar + Storage Association. Over 75 percent of Texas counties are expected to receive tax revenues from either wind, solar, or energy storage projects.” To which, Zachary had this response: “That’s crazy! More than three-quarters of the gigantic state of Texas is benefiting economically from renewable energy. Who wouldn’t want the fruits of $20 billion in tax revenue, and what landowners wouldn’t want to partake in the $30 billion headed to landowners in the state?” There are some questions that have no good answers. Willful stupidity is rampant among MAGAlomaniacsn these days. Jake Richardson also commented on the seemingly irrational war on renewables in Texas.

Renewables Surge In Texas

In the first week of March, the ERCOT power grid that supplies nearly all of Texas with electricity set records for most wind production (28,470 megawatts), most solar production (24,818 megawatts), and greatest battery discharge (4,833 megawatts). Just two years ago, the most that batteries had ever supplied to the ERCOT grid at once was 766 megawatts. Now the battery fleet is providing nearly as much instantaneous power as Texas nuclear power plants, which contribute around 5,000 megawatts. “These records, along with the generator interconnection queue, point towards a cleaner and more dynamic future for ERCOT,” said Joshua Rhodes, a research scientist studying the energy system at The University of Texas at Austin.

ERCOT is specifically designed to encourage the cheapest possible energy sources. As it turns out, that is the strong suit for renewables, which are out-competing thermal generation from coal, methane, or nuclear in virtually every use case, a state of affairs that is intensely embarrassing to the fossil fuel crowd, which has owned the political levers of power in Texas — from the legislature, to the governor’s office, to the state supreme court — for decades. Now, though, their arguments bolster the cause of renewables and they don’t like it one bit.

The Lone Star State has struggled to add new gas power plants lately, even after offering up billions of taxpayer dollars for a dedicated loan program to private gas developers. Solar and battery additions since last March average about 1 gigawatt per month, based on ERCOT’s figures, Texas energy analyst Doug Lewin said. In 2024, Texas produced almost twice as much wind and solar electricity as California. When weather conditions align, the state’s abundant array of renewables come alive.

On March 2, sunny, windy, and warm weather helped renewables meet 76% of the demand for electricity on the ERCOT grid. On March 4, as solar production started to decline when the sun set, more than 23,000 megawatts of thermal power plants were missing in action. Most of those were offline for scheduled repairs, but ERCOT data show that nearly half of all recent outages have been ​“forced,” meaning unscheduled. At 6:15 pm, batteries jumped in and delivered more than 10% of ERCOT’s electricity demand — the first time they’ve ever crossed that threshold in the state. “Batteries just don’t need the kind of maintenance windows that thermal plants do,” said Lewin, who authors the Texas Energy and Power newsletter. ​“The fleet of thermal plants is pretty rickety and old at this point, so having the batteries on there, it’s not just a summertime thing or winter morning peak, they can bail us out in the spring, too.”

At some level, the March records show clean energy excelling in the conditions that are most favorable to it. Bright sun and strong winds boosted renewable generation, while temperate weather kept demand lower than it would be on a hot summer or a cold winter day. But those seemingly balmy circumstances could belie a deeper threat to the Texas energy system. “One thing that I don’t think is talked about nearly enough is the potential for problems in shoulder season,” said Lewin.

If unusually hot weather struck during a spring day with lots of gas and coal power plants offline, ERCOT could struggle to meet demand, even if it was much lower than the blistering summer peaks. In fact, this happened in April 2006, when a surprise heat wave forced rolling outages, Lewin noted. Texas officials don’t talk much about climate change, but that kind of hot weather in the springtime is becoming more common. Last summer produced ample data on how the surge in solar and battery capacity reduced the threat to the grid from heat waves and lowered energy prices for customers, Canary Media says. This spring, batteries and renewables are showing they can also fill in the gaps when traditional plants step back.

The one characteristic that grid operators value above all else is electricity that is “dispatchable,” meaning that when they need it, it will be available. Renewables are not quite there yet at all times in all seasons, but are getting closer all the time. What few realize is that many thermal generators also are cannot provide dispatchable electricity all the time either. The Republicans don’t like it when you point out the flaws in their own arguments, but someone has to call them out for their hypocrisy and lies. You’re welcome!