Solar helps Texas carry energy load as heatwave puts power grid to test

As a deadly, record-breaking heatwave puts Texas’s grid to the test, renewable power sources are helping the state maintain energy reliability, contrary to some of the state’s lawmakers claims that clean energy is less reliable.

Texas has for more than two weeks been blanketed by an oppressive heat dome, and federal forecasters say there is “no end in sight”. The sweltering temperatures have forced people to stay in their homes with their air conditioners cranked, causing energy demand to soar to record levels.

An atypically large number of the state’s ageing, run-down coal and gas-fired power plants have failed amid the spikes. That’s especially troubling because as the only state in the continental US with its own grid – a decision made to avoid federal regulation – Texas can access very little power from other states.

But even amid three-digit temperatures, the state has still managed to avoid rolling blackouts this month. A key reason, energy analysts say, is the state’s supply of solar power, which has doubled since early 2022.

“The additional solar that we’ve had, I think has likely been determinative in making a difference between outages and not having outages,” said Doug Lewin, president of the Austin-based renewable power consulting firm Stoic Energy.

On hot, sunny, summer days, solar performs exceptionally well. During the afternoons, solar has accounted for upwards of 15% of the state’s energy supply.

“The same sun that heats up buildings [and] triggers people to turn on their air conditioners, is the sun that can make electricity from solar panels,” said Joshua Rhodes, research scientist at the University of Texas at Austin. “So during this high amount of heat, we’re also seeing a lot of electricity being produced by solar panels.”

It’s a fact that clashes with the narrative pushed by some Texas lawmakers who insist on blaming renewable energy for the grid’s vulnerability to outages.

“There is a group of elected officials,” said Lewin, “that routinely trash renewables.”

Conservatives often point out that solar energy is intermittent because the sun does not shine at all hours of the day. Despite that fact, it’s proved quite productive in sunny Texas, said Lewin, who also writes the Texas Energy and Power Newsletter.

“Solar typically peaks at 11,12, one o’clock, but doesn’t go down very much until beyond five o’clock or even beyond six o’clock in Texas, because a lot of our solar is in west Texas, and the sun sets later out there,” he said.

Solar hasn’t been the only factor in the grid’s relative success throughout the heatwave. Last Tuesday, the state’s grid operator also asked residents to voluntarily use less energy during peak hours. And other carbon-free power sources also helped carry the load.

Wind power, for instance, doesn’t fare well during hot, peak electricity hours, but it tends to pick up steam in the evening after the sun sets.

“We’re seeing a pretty good synergy there,” said Rhodes.

Battery storage helped keep the lights and AC units by providing immediately available backup power when a major coal-fired power plant failed last week, and when a nuclear plant went offline days earlier, said Lewin. Texas is second only to California in battery capacity.

Despite their role in boosting reliability, some Republican lawmakers in Texas have demonized renewable energy sources. Most notably, as Winter Storm Uri knocked out power for millions of people across Texas, killing nearly 250 people, rightwingers including Governor Greg Abbott were quick to blame renewable power. Independent report after independent report, however, found that the failure of fossil fuel power plants was a larger factor in grid failure during the freeze.

“The rhetoric is clearly politically based,” said Ed Hirs, energy fellow at the University of Houston. “It’s not based on any kind of logic or data.

Amid a heatwave last summer, Texas Republicans again said renewables caused power outage risks due to peaking demand – something independent analysts contested.

This legislative session, Republican officials proposed a spate of anti-renewable policies, and successfully passed a measure to impose new costs on wind and solar energy providers.

Despite officials’ anti-renewables rhetoric, Texas has done very little to boost the reliability of its ageing fossil fuel-powered plants, said Hirs.

“The coal plants average about 50 years of age, gas plants average about 30. They’re mechanical, they’re prone to breakdowns … but there have been years of underinvestment,” said Hirs, who has long argued that Texas officials should overhaul how the state’s grid is managed to promote reliability.

Investment in Texas’s grid is all the more crucial amid the climate crisis. An analysis of data from the science communications group Climate Central shows climate change made Texas’s current heatwave at least five times more likely.

And as the crisis progresses, extreme heat within the state will only become more likely. The number of 100F days in Texas is expected to nearly double by 2036, a 2021 state report found, meaning without urgent action, stress on the grid will only increase.

The stakes of preparation couldn’t be higher, as heat is the most deadly form of extreme weather in the US.

“If we can’t keep the air conditioners running,” said Rhodes, “then we’re definitely going to run into problems.”