Texas is not the first state that one thinks of when someone mentions renewable energy. That would most probably be California. Yet Texas is already the biggest producer of electricity from wind farms in the country and is now on track to become the biggest U.S. producer of solar power, too. A private company, Invenergy, is building a 1.31-GW solar farm in Texas that is going to be the biggest in the United States, capable of producing enough energy to power 300,000 households when completed, which is scheduled for 2023.
According to a Wall Street Journal report on the project and wider industry trends, it was only a matter of time before Texas became a leader in solar power, as well as wind power. It has the perfect conditions, and with solar costs falling, chances are more solar farms will pop up across the Lone Star State.
They will add to 30.9 GW in installed wind power generation capacity distributed among 161 wind farms. Last year, this capacity provided 17.5 percent of Texas's electricity, powering the equivalent of 7,745,800 households, according to the American Wind Energy Association. During that same year, wind power generation in Texas helped avoid 49 million metric tons of carbon dioxide.
Solar energy, on the other hand, accounted for just 2 percent of electricity generation capacity in Texas last year, at up to 2.281 GW, according to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. Also according to ERCOT, Texas was going to have 12.5 GW of solar capacity installed by 2029. That was five years ago. Now, the regulator expects the state's solar generation capacity to exceed 12.5 GW as soon as 2021, according to the Wall Street Journal. By 2023, there will be 38 GW of wind capacity and 21 GW of solar capacity in the state, according to ERCOT.
