AUSTIN, Texas — Texas is the second largest producer of solar energy, behind California, and it is a renewable energy source that companies across the state are leaning into. 

Graeme Walker, CEO of Axis Solar, showed Spectrum News 1 around the Paloma Ridge solar project in Austin. Walker said he’s noticed the growth of the solar industry in Texas.

“This was just a wide-open parking lot,” Walker said. “Where those parking their cars would be sitting in the sun all day, and there’s no really utilization of the space.”

As electricity costs rise, companies are looking for ways to lower energy consumption. Walker says, until recently, it was taking companies nearly a decade to see returns on investing in solar panels.

“With higher electricity rates and the new Inflation Reduction Act, companies are seeing five to six years returns on investment,” Walker said.

Paloma Ridge is the largest commercial behind-the-meter solar project in the Austin area, which means solar power is going directly into the building’s electrical panel, not the state’s power grid.

“The building owner or the homeowner is the one who directly gets the benefit of the solar,” Walker said.

When the total solar eclipse cast a shadow on Texas, solar energy production was affected, but the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) says it didn’t expect any reliability concerns during the phenomenon. 

“Solar generation could plummet from about 99% to 7.6% during the eclipse,” said Dr. Krystel Castillo, director of the University of Texas at San Antonio’s Texas Sustainable Energy Research Institute.

Castillo says the grid is equipped to handle events like this. During an eclipse, other power sources step in to keep electricity flowing.

“While solar energy has experienced rapid growth in Texas, it is still only considered just a portion of our overall energy mix,” said Dr. Castillo.

Solar makes up approximately 6% of the state’s electricity. 

“It’s going to be clouds too, so it’s not going to be as much of an effect you would see if it had been a day like today,” Walker said.