Texas’s Clean Energy Ambitions: A Chart of the State’s Plans to Build the Most Renewable Power

This week’s chart from Canary Media visualizes important facts on the sustainable energy transition. For their endorsement of the column, Canary would like to thank Clean Energy Counsel.

Thanks to its generous amount of acreage suitable for solar and wind power, its competitive energy market, its quick grid-interconnection process, and its lenient licensing regime, Texas has grown into a clean energy powerhouse in every respect.

Its goals for the following 18 months demonstrate its standing. Based on an examination of data from the U.S. Energy Information Agency, the state has the ambition to construct 35 gigawatts of renewable energy within the next 18 months, surpassing the combined plans of the next nine states, as reported in July by Cleanview.

In terms of wind power in the United States, Texas has long held the top spot. However, solar power has also been a hot commodity in Texas in recent years. According to a report released this week by American Clean Power, the state has gone from having connected 2.4 GW of utility-scale solar to its grid five years ago to having installed nearly 22 GW of solar as of June of this year. That’s more than enough to put Texas ahead of California in terms of large-scale solar installations, and it’s nearly ten times more than in 2019.

Developers are swarming to Texas to take advantage of its abundant and inexpensive solar and wind power, and the Lone Star State is quickly becoming the nation’s leading market for grid batteries. This bodes well for the future of renewable energy in Texas.

Texas is poised to further establish itself as the leading state in sustainable energy, thanks to its ambitious construction ambitions. According to writer Ketan Joshi, there has been no complete energy transition despite the fast growth of the state’s renewable energy sector.

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In terms of the actual cleanliness of its system, Texas falls behind California and many other states, even though it has constructed more large-scale clean energy than any other state in absolute terms.

While renewables supplied barely 28% of Texas’ power in 2023, according to Ember statistics, California fulfilled more than 50% of its electrical demands. Texas power plants still produce a little more carbon-intensive electricity than the national average.

Data centers and Bitcoin miners are causing Texas to have some of the fastest-growing electrical demands of any state in the country. Therefore, it is not necessarily removing polluting energy sources from the grid, but rather meeting increased demand with the additional solar, wind, and battery storage it is constructing.

Another obstacle that slows down grid cleanup in Texas is the fossil fuel industry’s strong influence in local politics. The state established a scheme last year to provide low-interest loans to energy producers in the amount of billions of dollars so that they can construct new fossil-gas power plants with a capacity of several gigawatts.

Put simply, despite the success of its renewable energy sector, the Lone Star state’s reliance on fossil fuels is far from over. That needs to change if Texas wants to be known as a state that decarbonizes its electricity sector and not simply one that develops a lot of stuff.

When it comes to renewable energy and green technology, no other mission-driven legal practice compares to Clean Energy Counsel. We guide clients through the entire project life cycle, advising them on everything from initial venture capital investment to site control, equipment supply, EPC contracting, project acquisitions, debt, and tax equity.