Following the disastrous failure of thermal generation, mostly gas, during the Valentine’s Day freeze of 2021, Texas has massively increased buildout of solar, and batteries, as well as wind energy, with some modest gas as well.
Now the formerly brittle grid is robustly meeting record demand with plenty of overhead to spare, thanks to clean energy.
Air conditioning demand in extreme Texas heat pushed the ERCOT grid beyond 91 gigawatts today. Before yesterday, we had never exceeded 86 GW so this record shatters the old one. Note there was >20 GW of buffer, no energy emergency, no conservation call.
Air conditioning demand in extreme Texas heat pushed the ERCOT grid beyond 91 gigawatts today. Before yesterday, we had never exceeded 86 GW so this record shatters the old one. Note there was >20 GW of buffer, no energy emergency, no conservation call.
Despite record demand in Texas, not only were there no energy emergencies or calls for conservation, there was abundant surplus energy available—so much so that wholesale power prices were extremely low.
Solar plays a massive role in driving prices lower.
