Solar generated more power than it ever has before on Texas’ grid earlier this month.
That’s impressive, but even more so when you consider that it was the 17th record the power source set in the state this year, according to a new report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.
The record setting started bright and early on Jan. 24, when solar generated 22.1 gigawatts of power. That figure has since steadily risen, and on Sept. 9, solar produced a huge 29.9 GW. Also that day, solar provided more than 40% of the state’s power from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., per data from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the state’s grid operator.
That early September day capped a groundbreaking summer for solar in Texas. From June 1 through Aug. 31, solar met 15.2% of all demand in the ERCOT system. Coal provided for 12.5% of demand during that time.
And solar wasn’t the only top performer this year. Battery storage has already set four discharge records in Texas this month, often charging up on solar power that floods the grid in the mornings and putting it back into the system when the sun sets, per the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.
Texas’ extreme summer temperatures have frequently driven ERCOT to ask people to conserve power, warning that increased air-conditioning use could overwhelm the grid’s energy supplies. But this year, ERCOT didn’t ask customers to conserve power at all, and credited its summertime stability to Texas’ nation-leading deployment of solar and batteries.
This all reveals solar’s growing ability to replace fossil fuels and meet power demand in Texas, especially when the clean energy source is paired with batteries. And it couldn’t be more necessary: The U.S. Energy Information Administration anticipates demand in ERCOT will surge as much as 23% from 2024 to 2026.
Meanwhile, natural gas is failing to meet the moment. Texas developers have proposed building more than 100 new gas power plants in the next few years to meet rising demand from data centers and other heavy industry. The state created a $7.2 billion loan program to incentivize gas plant construction, but more than two years after that fund was launched, just two facilities have been approved for only $321 million in loans. Developers pulled another seven projects from consideration, citing high costs and supply chain challenges.
Solar and batteries, meanwhile, remain among the cheapest and quickest ways to add power generation to the grid — though the Trump administration isn’t making it any easier for communities to yield the benefits of these technologies as it rolls back federal clean energy tax credits and solar-boosting programs.
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Great Job Kathryn Krawczyk & the Team @ Canary Media Source link for sharing this story.
