Houston Republic

The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that wind energy is exerting growing significance in Texas, with 18% of the electricity produced in 2019 from wind turbines, compared to 6% in 2010.

"The market structure in our state does many things to encourage the investments and the deployment of renewables — both wind and solar," Charles McConnell, the executive director of the Center for Carbon Management in Energy and Sustainability at the University of Houston, told the Houston Republic.  

Wind-powered generation contributed 84.4 thousand gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electricity to the state in 2019, the October Energy Information Administration report found. Yet, that growth from 75.7 thousand GWh generated in 2018 was due mostly to the state's growing wind production capacity.

The state's wind energy production capacity grew by 17%, from 24.1 gigawatts (GW) in 2018 to 28.1 GW in 2019, the energy report found. 

McConnell spoke with the Houston Republic about what the growth in dependence on wind energy as a power source means for Texans.

The emphasis on wind energy has come about for several reasons, McConnell told the Houston Republic.

The reward in terms of production and investment tax credits permits investors to fund renewable expansions with a quick return on the financial backing, McConnell said, who is also a former assistant secretary of energy at the U.S. Department of Energy with 35 years in the energy sector on the private side.

To get the tax credits, producers using renewables may offer their electricity at a loss – even paying for their electricity to be used – during high-production times to ensure they receive their tax credits, McConnell said.

"By virtue of that, those that do not have participation in investment tax credits and production tax credits, those operators are not in a position to be able to compete with those suppliers," he told the Houston Republic.

That has meant economic problems for those who would generate the state's baseload capacity, he said.

"And by virtue of that, the reserve margin in our system has become smaller and smaller," McConnell told the Houston Republic. 

Texas went from approximately 15% additional capacity a decade ago to almost no reserve margin during the summer months, he said. That leads to brownouts and other problems, as the highest-demand times generally occur when renewable capacity is at its lowest performance.

Additionally, while Texans enjoy competitive electricity rates, what does not show in the power bills is how much of that generation is being paid for through state taxes, McConnell told the Houston Republic. In fact, wind and solar would not be profitable without government subsidies.

Texas is right to celebrate its renewable capacity, McConnell said. However, people need to realize that most electricity, by necessity, comes from natural gas facilities, and renewables are not ready to take over that role with existing technology.

The realistic goal is not 100% renewable, but 100% carbon-free through the use of nuclear power generation and carbon capture in tandem with coal- and natural gas-fired plants, McConnell said.