from Reuters:
June 30 (Reuters) – The Texas grid easily met record demand during this week’s heat wave with ample power from wind and solar farms, data from grid operators showed.
We have data on the proportion of electricity generated in Texas as of April, which explains why we came to this result.
figure 1: Shares of electricity generated by utilities from coal (blue), natural gas (tan), nuclear (green), renewables (gray), nuclear (red), and all others (orange). source: Environmental Impact Assessment.
The above figures are as of before summer, but Reuters notes:
So far this week, solar capacity hit a record 13,086 megawatts on June 25, according to ERCOT. Meanwhile, wind power generation hit a high of 24,237 MW on June 28, down from an all-time high of 27,044 MW set in May 2022, according to Federal Energy and ERCOT data.
Last year, ERCOT added more than 6,300 megawatts (MW) of wind and solar power plants and more than 1,300 MW of battery storage. These batteries help stabilize the grid because battery operators store power when prices and demand are low and sell it back when prices and demand are high.
Energy storage is doing so well in Texas that investors including BlackRock and UBS are buying battery projects.
