As Brutal Heat Continues, Solar, Batteries Critical for Keeping Texans Cool

“Climate change isn’t messing around.”
Nighttime “low” temps of 82 in Dallas. Solar, wind and massive battery upgrades keeping grid together.

New York Times:

Strafed by powerful storms and superheated by a dome of hot air, Texas has been enduring a dangerous early heat wave this week that has broken temperature records and strained the state’s independent power grid.

But the lights and air conditioning have stayed on across the state, in large part because of an unlikely new reality in the nation’s premier oil and gas state: Texas is fast becoming a leader in solar power.

The amount of solar energy generated in Texas has doubled since the start of last year. And it is set to roughly double again by the end of next year, according to data from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. Already, the state rivals California in how much power it gets from commercial solar farms, which are sprouting across Texas at a rapid pace, from the baked-dry ranches of West Texas to the booming suburbs southwest of Houston.

“Solar is producing 15 percent of total energy right now,” Joshua Rhodes, a research scientist at the University of Texas at Austin, said on a sweltering day in the state capital last week, when a larger-than-usual share of power was coming from the sun.

So far this year, about 7 percent of the electric power used in Texas has come from solar, and 31 percent from wind.

The state’s increasing reliance on renewable energy has caused some Texas lawmakers, mindful of the reliable production and revenues from oil and gas, to worry. “It’s definitely ruffling some feathers,” Dr. Rhodes said.

Newsweek:

Local experts are expecting Texas’ energy grid to face a “real test” in the face of the oncoming hot spell. Joshua Rhodes, a research scientist at the University of Texas’ Energy Institute, told the Washington Post: “Just about every single air conditioner in those regions is going to want energy at the same time.”

America’s electricity grid is already facing stress from increased electricity demand and a growing number of climate change-linked extreme weather eventsthat impact power lines and energy generators.
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Research conducted in May by S&P Global Intelligence found that Texas is second only to California in battery capacity, with 2.2 gigawatts of storage and 29.2 gigawatts in the planning pipeline by 2030. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) already has the largest wind fleet in the U.S. and is planning on adding 78 gigawatts of capacity to its existing 12 gigawatt solar generation.

By 2035, S&P predicts wind generation will produce half of Texas’s storage capacity, with the other half provided by solar power. In 2023, solar and wind power will jointly account for 36 percent of the grid’s needs, rising to 43 percent in 2035.

Battery storage systems allow for the energy produced when demand is below supply to be stored and then released onto the grid during peak usage times. As renewable energy isn’t generated at a consistent level over time, they are playing an increasingly important role in the transition to green alternatives.

“Battery storage is a boon to wind and solar, as it allows them to store the energy and then make it available at peak hours,” John Raymond Hanger, Pennsylvania’s former public utilities commissioner, tweeted on Sunday. “But amid this heat emergency, batteries have also proved useful in bailing out more traditional power plants.”

Scientific American:

So it goes in Texas, where a surge in solar power generation is helping the state’s primary grid operator navigate an ongoing and stifling heat wave.

Yet, in spite of the sun-powered boost, analysts say the state’s electric grid remains unprepared for a warming climate where intense heat waves will become more frequent and severe.

The last few days have offered a preview of this hotter future. The current heat wave has shattered temperature records in many cities and reached as high as 118 degrees Fahrenheit along the Mexican border. The broiling conditions are expected to continue this week.

“We learned that climate change isn’t messing around,” said Alison Silverstein, a Texas-based energy consultant who authored a high-profile Department of Energy report on the reliability of the country’s electric system in 2018.

“This kind of heat dome and long-lasting extreme heat conditions are not anything we have seen before in Texas, and yet they are happening more and more often,” Silverstein added. “We cannot change our built infrastructure fast enough.”