TEXAS – Even though Texas is known for oil and gas production, the state has become a leader in wind power. Renewables are becoming an important part of our energy mix.
“Our population is growing a great deal in Texas. So our energy needs are really expanding greatly,” said Robert Miggins, co-founder and CEO of solar company Big Sun Solar.
More sunlight equals more solar power generation. As the co-founder of a solar company, Miggins is all for the benefits solar energy provides.
“The great thing about solar is the sun is shining typically when our overall statewide electricity needs are the greatest,” he said.
In recent weeks, record-breaking summer heat has led to a record breaking demand for energy statewide. At the same time, solar and wind farms performed at a critical moment, producing more than 31,000 megawatts of renewable energy — the most ever.
“We’re in for a long, hot summer,” Miggins said. “Solar is a really important part of how we’re meeting our overall statewide ERCOT grid energy requirements.”
This summer, on an average day, solar and wind energy combined are generating more than a quarter of the Texas grid’s total power. The Lone Star State is the second largest producer of solar energy, only behind California. Texas is leading the nation in wind generated electricity.
Dr. Taylor Collins is an energy economics researcher at the University of Incarnate Word, and the chair of the Economics & Management department. He says the process to get renewable energy across Texas isn’t flawless.
“There’s occasional bottlenecks where we don’t really have the transmission lines to distribute from West Texas through the entirety of the state as reliably as we need to through some of the peak energy hours,” Collins said.
Solar energy has become efficient, bringing down the cost per kilowatt hour. But when it’s not sunny, solar’s reliability gets shaky.
“At least in the short term, the biggest problem with the renewable approach is that the battery storage isn’t there to support it,” Collins said.
When it comes to getting power quickly, where and when we need it, Collins says natural gas is currently our most reliable energy source. Although there are benefits to renewable energy, he warns relying on imported parts for production could become a problem.
“The bigger portion of that mix that they become, the more vulnerable we become to some of these geo-political components,” Collins said. "Since we’ve offshored a lot of their production elsewhere across the globe.”
Collins expects it will be decades before Texas becomes independent of fossil fuels.
“I think we are going to have to keep some level of natural gas because we need something we can turn on and off,” he said. “That’s the thing about wind and solar. You can’t choose to turn it on and off as you need.”