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Clearly, the news of the week – well beyond CleanTechnica – Texas and some neighboring areas froze and lost power. The vast majority of power plants that were decommissioned were thermal plants (mainly natural gas). They were not sufficiently equipped for the cold. A number of wind turbines were also out of order because no one had purchased the “cold weather pack”. (Note that there are a huge number of wind turbines in cold, snowy and icy climates that work very well. The Texas problem was just a Texas problem of poor planning and cost cutting.)
In fact, even though some wind turbines were out of order, other turbines were producing more than expected, thus contributing to the crisis. One of the advantages of renewables is that they are widely distributed, decentralized, reliable and resilient. The more renewable energies there are on a grid, in general, the more reliable and resilient the grid becomes.
Image courtesy S&P Global
With that in mind, the following news sheds some light into a dark week: Texas is expected to add an additional 35 gigawatts (GW) of solar and wind power capacity in the next few years, from 2021 to 2023. That’s according to the ERCOT (Electric Reliability Council Of Texas Inc.) data on what is under development for the next few years. If Greg Abbott, Tucker Carlson and the shale gas mafia are successful, they will slow the growth of clean energy – mistakenly blaming all of the grid problems in Texas for other reasons on renewables seemed like a good option for them. However, the response has been strong and broad to this nonsense, and ERCOT’s “free market” approach to the grid is going to remain apolitical about electricity sources anyway, meaning buyers choose renewables. cheap.
The world is turning to renewable energy, and that includes the energy capital of the United States. “The short-term additions – which are largely supported by financial security deposits for the interconnection, federal tax incentives and power purchase agreements – would more than double the solar and wind footprint of ERCOT to 64 GW in just three years, ”writes S&P Global.
Double !!#Texas will add 35 GW more wind + solar power over the next 2 years, doubling its current capacity.
Also studying the addition of 26 GW of batteries. Http://t.co/QZJaSx4xeU #WWS #WindWaterSolar https://t.co/MU53ThPd9e
– Mark Z. Jacobson (@mzjacobson) February 20, 2021
In addition to wind and solar power, strong growth in energy storage is also expected – which would go a long way in a cold week like this week. In fact, the expected growth of stationary energy storage is much higher in percentage than the growth of wind and solar energy.
Image courtesy S&P Global
“According to ERCOT data, the capacity of the installed battery connected to its system could increase to 1.7 GW in 2021 and to more than 2 GW in 2022 against 225 MW in 2020. But that only scratches the surface of more. of 26 GW of large-scale battery storage under consideration in ERCOT’s deeper interconnect queue – more than wind and just behind solar.
All of the above about wind, solar and battery storage is only for large-scale projects. There is also a competitive market for rooftop solar and home energy storage, a market that must become increasingly popular amid this natural disaster and grid disaster.
Tesla offers its seemingly unbeatable rate of $ 1.49 / watt in Texas, as elsewhere, and you also have market leader Sunrun, SunPower, and many more installed locally. They all now offer the rooftop-solar-plus-storage combo, and they should all be able to lower the cost of the grid – at least with rooftop solar, if not also with the integrated Powerwall energy storage system. .
In addition to not having electricity or water for a period of time in the state, interest in having a more reliable and secure home energy system must grow in Texas. Stay tuned for more stories on this in the days, weeks and years to come.
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