Texas could add 3.5 GW of solar this year

[Finishline42]

Last edited Mon May 4, 2020, 12:01 PM - Edit history (1)

Texas could add 3.5 GW of solar this year

(just for reference ERCOT had 2,281 MW of solar at the end of 2019) (edited to correct GW to MW)

Solar capacity in the ERCOT grid region has the “potential” to reach 5.8 GW this year, said ERCOT in its annual “State of the Grid” report. ERCOT serves nearly all of Texas.

Solar capacity in ERCOT has room to grow, as it met less than 2% of the grid’s load last year. Wind power met 20% of the grid’s load, with wind capacity at 24 GW and potentially rising to 33 GW this year. Wind and solar generation developers submitted a “record number of interconnection requests” last year, the report said, and “with more solar projects coming online, wind and solar power have begun to complement each other.”

Solar additions this year should also help serve peak load, which exceeded 74 GW last August 12, and which ERCOT expects to reach just under 77 GW this summer.

snip

ERCOT also created a battery energy storage task force, and staff began exploring technical requirements, modeling needs and market rules for battery storage. Battery storage capacity in the ERCOT region stood at 104 MW in 2019 “and is on track to exceed 350 MW by the end of 2020,” said the report.

https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2020/05/04/texas-could-add-3-5-gw-of-solar-this-year/

[Thomas Hurt]

1. I gather that there may be a farm going in Culberson County.

[progree]

2. "ERCOT had 2,281 GW of solar at the end of 2019". I think you mean MW, not GW. n/t

[Finishline42]

3. You are correct

I got a little carried away there... haha

Thanks progree

[duforsure]

4. trump will be calling Abbott when he finds this out

How to put up roadblocks preventing this from happening.

[Finishline42]

6. That's one of interesting aspects of wind and solar

It really is a conservative idea - being independent from the grid - self reliant.

One of the reasons the renewable energy credits keep getting extended is because of who benefits the most - rural land owners.

So a rancher in West Texas has a bunch of land that somebody wants to build a wind farm on. He gets $500 a month per windmill (that's the last number I saw anyway). And the windmills don't take up all the land either. 100 windmills would net $600,000 a year! Try making that with cattle on that wind swept grub land.

ERCOT pretty much does what's best for Texas and they have a lot of wind and solar resources.

[Miguelito Loveless]

5. We have been using solar for five years now,

and it is marvelous. My wife and I saved for 25 years to pay off our house and buy one with an proper facing roof to install solar on. We have a large array, installed in sections over the years, and now power the house, our A/C and our cars with it. Zero gasoline use (down from 600-800 gallons per year in 2015) for last two years. When the furnace finally gives up the ghost, we will replace it with a geo-thermal system, removing the last fossil fuel from our home.