Solar set to double footprint in Texas, grow worldwide
Solar energy is poised for a period of rapid growth over the next five years in Texas and around the world, according to a report by the International Energy Agency and analysis by Environment Texas.
The IEA report, released this month, found that renewable energy capacity is expected to account for about 95 percent of the growth in global power generation capacity from now to 2026, with solar cell installations accounting for at least 60 percent of that growth.
That trend is expected to be mirrored in Texas, said Lennis Barlow, a clean energy associate with Environment Texas. The state ranked second in the nation in the growth of net solar generation from 2011 to 2020, he said, with an increase of more than 12,000 percent. That growth is expected to accelerate in coming years.
Filings with the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the state’s grid manager, show solar and utility-scale battery projects are expected to nearly double the amount of power capacity they generate by the end of 2022, he said. With 10,096 megawatts of solar on the grid now, solar is expected to be able to produce as much as 19,520 megawatts by December 2022. One megawatt of electricity is enough to power about 200 homes on a hot summer day.
“It is incredibly exciting to see the state of Texas, which has been the national leader in wind energy since 2005, now also helping lead the way in solar power generation,” Barlow said. “Solar power has the capacity to cheaply and reliably meet all of Texas’s energy needs, without the polluting or climate altering effects of fossil fuels.”
Current projections, Barlow said, show that the country could soon meet most of its energy needs with renewables. He pointed to research by the Environment America Research and Policy Center, suggesting that if renewable energy generation continued to grow at its current rate of about 15 percent a year, it could produce enough electricity to meet current electricity needs by 2035.
However, that research does not delve into the transmission projects and other infrastructure overhauls that would be needed to move the country’s energy sources from fossil-fuel facilities to renewables.