Texas leading in solar
A report finds the Lone Star State installed 6,500 megawatts last year, compared with California’s 6,171
Texas installed more solar capacity than any other state in 2023, surpassing California for the second time.
More than 6,500 megawatts of solar generation were installed in Texas last year, compared with California’s 6,171 megawatts, according to a report published Wednesday by energy research firm Wood Mackenzie and the Solar Energy Industries Association, an industry trade group.
One megawatt can power around 200 Texas homes during the hottest summer days, according to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the state’s grid operator.
Texas last beat California in 2021 and took second in 2022, according to the analysis.
Though the two states have switched off on leading solar growth in recent years, in the long term, Texas may emerge as the victor: In the next decade, Texas is projected to add nearly 100 gigawatts of solar capacity, outpacing the next closest state by a 2-to-1 margin, according to Morgan Lyons, SEIA’s director of communications.
Solar power records are nothing new for Texas. Last year, the state surpassed California in having the most solar capacity installed on its dominant power grid. The contribution of power to the ERCOT grid from solar farms has already set 10 records this year.
There has been a dramatic increase of utility-scale solar in the last couple of years as the cost of building solar farms has dropped and as Biden administration incentives encouraging their development have taken hold.
In 2023, the U.S. added 32.4 gigawatts of solar capacity, a 51% increase from 2022, according to Wood Mackenzie and SEIA’s report. Solar accounted for 53% of all new electricity generation added to the U.S. grids last year, surpassing 50% for the first time, the two groups said.
Many of those solar developers have come to Texas, drawn to the state’s abundance of sunlight and land, favorable electricity market, rapid power demand growth and relatively quick ability to connect to the ERCOT grid.
Since 2021, Texas has installed more than 15 gigawatts of new solar capacity, which is more solar than the entire country installed in any year before 2020, according to SEIA’s Lyons.