On Wednesday, March 27th, the largest state in the contiguous United States got almost one-third of its electricity by harnessing the wind. According to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages the bulk of the Lone Star State's power grid, a record-breaking 10,296 MW of electricity was whipped up by wind turbines. That's enough to provide 29 percent of the state's power, and to keep the lights on in over 5 million homes.
ERCOT notes in a statement issued today that "The new record beats the previous record set earlier this month by more than 600 MW, and the American Wind Energy Association reports it was a record for any US power system."
The landmark is further evidence of one of the nation's unlikeliest energy success stories. Conservative politicians have a renowned aversion to clean energy (though Republican voters favor it overwhelmingly), and Texas is still deep red. Yet wind farms are cropping up in there faster than almost anywhere else. ERCOT points out as much, as it boasts of the sector's recent growth:
Texas continues to have more wind power capacity than any other state. The ERCOT region has more than 11,000 MW of commercial wind power capacity, with nearly 8,000 MW of new projects in development and more than 26,700 MW under study. Wind power comprised 9.9 percent of the total energy used in the ERCOT region in 2013, compared to 9.2 percent in 2012.
Texas has more wind power than any other state, by a huge margin. And it keeps blowing through these major milestones just about every year. There was some trepidation that Texas's wind industry would slow as fracking rose in prominence and a key tax credit faced expiration, but hallmarks like this underline some very strong fundamentals. Wind power is ideal for Texas, where there's a lot of open land, a lot of breezy plains—and a rising demand for electricity, as the state's population continues to grow.
Okay well come on now! If this is happening in Texas, where crude oil runs through the veins of its citizens, then if should be happening EVERYWHERE!
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| World's largest wind turbine. Fairbanks, Alaska. |
Hell it's happening up here in Alaska as well, and we are almost as oil driven as the Lone Star state.
Maybe even more so.
So this IS happening, even in places that you would think would be the last to start taking advantage of renewable energy. The only question remaining is is it happening fast enough?
Not only are there wind turbine farms across Texas, there are also thousands of great paying jobs along with them.
ReplyDeleteBut I don't quit know why you keep portraying Texas as redder than red. The central corridor in Texas is one of the fastest growing population areas in the country and is primarily blue, bright blue. In fact , one of our future democratic presidents is the mayor of one of our blue cities, do some research on the expanding population in the area.
Also, blue Austin is alone growing by the rate of over 65,000 a year. Which is primarily happening because of the hitech companies expanding into Austin. Apple just partnered with Flextronics on a 400 million expansion project( a year ago)and a host of others are now deeply seated in the "Silicon Hills". BTW many of the transplants are from the silicon valley in CA, they love Austin as much as I do.
I lived in Texas for 15 years. People stereotype Texas and Texans. Simplicity is easier to deal with than complexity. Then, of course there are a lot of idiots in the gubmint, which doesn't help the State's reputation.
ReplyDeleteTexas is home to a fascinatingly complex mixture of people. At its heart, there is a strong streak of pragmatism. This story does not surprise me one bit.
I should add, I worked with a national organization dedicated to getting arts education into schools. It's most successful chapter by far was in Texas. And Austin rocks!
So this is how you turn a red state blue!
ReplyDeleteIf you get rid of the shit house rat crazy politicians and the gun nuts, Texas is a great place. Dallas, Houston, Austin. Such great cities. Great people. Amazing schools. Really amazing food. Flowers everywhere. But OY the elected officials are a special kind of stupid.
ReplyDeleteTexasMel
At the risk of stating the obvious and being kidded about an old joke, I believe we could be TOTALLY energy independent if we could harness all the hot air generated in Congress and at Faux News!
ReplyDeleteLots of wind. No facts.
You beat me to it!
DeleteI was going to say, they are generating lot of hot air from all the politicians from Texas. Heck, Ted Cruz could probable supply a major city all by himself.
The Stone Age didn't end because we ran out of stones...
ReplyDeleteThe Iron Age didn't begin because we ran out of bronze...
and we should be happy to turn to safe, reliable, renewable energy sources before we run out of oil.
Is it growing fast enough? Maybe if our politicians would put 1/10th the emphasis on renewables that they do on oil & fracking, it could grow faster. The most profitable corporations in the history of forever (oil companies) do not need billions of dollars of tax breaks every year.
ReplyDeletePut that money into wind, solar & geothermal & watch it grow.
But...but.... isn't wind a finite resource? What if we use it all up? Solar energy, people say, but we don't get as much sunlight in the U.S. as they do in Germany!
ReplyDelete/sarcasm
Comments taken from actual Republican idiots. But I repeat myself.
My favorite is the one about Germany because it's just so very wrong.
DeleteYou do understand that wind generation needs on demand gas back up? The biggest boosters of wind power have significant stakes in gas electric generation. Want to force a utility to buy your 50Mw power plant? Get them to invest in 50Mw of wind generation. The subsidies for green energy apply to Tge whole system. That's why Texas loves its wind.
ReplyDeleteThis post made me smile. I just lost my job after over 20 years , and our kids are all out of the house, so we thought about downsizing, building a home from scratch and making it as energy efficient as possible. We're still crunching numbers and in the early stages. The zone the lot we bought requires a backup source, but the technology has advanced so much since we first started thinking about it ten years ago, the batteries are smaller yet generate more power than before, requiring fewer panels. We're starting to look into the wind option. The only thing I told the architects was that I don't want a dirt roof, and I want it to look like an average gable roof.
ReplyDeleteGood for Texas and Alaska!
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