As Texas grid saw spike, wind and solar delivered
Renewable energy sources came through in a big way this week for Texas, when temperatures and electricity demand reached record levels.
On Sunday, Texans hit a new record for electricity demand, according to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, as triple-digit temperatures baked the state. But as Dallas-Fort-Worth tied a 111-year-old daily record for high temperature, wind and solar power provided about a third of the state’s electricity, a higher portion than usual.
“Part of this incredible heat is that it’s changes in temperature that causes wind. So in both wind and solar, we’re seeing performance well above what ERCOT was projecting for those resources this time of the year,” said Jeff Clark, president of the Advanced Power Alliance, a renewable energy trade organization.
Between June 7-13, the Texas grid generated approximately 2,679 GWh of wind energy and 598 GWh of solar energy, accounting for about 33% of the total energy generated during that period, according to a statement from ERCOT. That’s more than in 2021, when wind and solar generated about 28.4%of total electricity for the entire year.
And from January to May this year, about 37% of the total electricity came from wind and solar, according to the ERCOT website, up from 32% during the same period in 2021.
Renewable energy output has grown steadily in Texas over the past few decades, surpassing the rest of the country. Renewables contributed about 20% of total U.S. electricity last year, according to the Energy Information Administration.
“We don’t advocate that renewables are the only thing that we do, but we do advocate that they be a very important part of our mix,” said Clark, with the power alliance. “I think what we’ve seen in May and June is all of our resources working together.”
The proportion of energy generated from wind power in Texas set a new record on April 10, when it contributed to about 69% of the total electricity on the ERCOT grid. Solar energy generation in the state’s main power grid set a new record on May 19, when it accounted for 14.62% of the electricity in the system.
Although energy generation from using natural gas is “vital” to the electric grid system, Clark said renewable energy sources helped offset some of the impact of rising natural gas prices.
“The bills are going to hurt, but they would have hurt a lot more without these renewables on the system,” he said.