On Wednesday, March 24th Advanced Energy Economy (AEE) held a webinar titled "Search for Resilience: Texas Blackouts, Policy Fallout, and How Advanced Energy Can Help”. It has been about one month since the disastrous winter weather caused blackouts all across ERCOT, Texas’s electric grid. It was enlightening to hear from industry and policy experts about what has happened in the wake of the blackouts, and what the future of ERCOT and other electric grids across the United States will look like.
The combination of PV and agriculture could have benefits for both industries, while also cutting down on land use. Researchers are working to ensure that projects and systems are designed in ways that offer positive outcomes for both sides.
Image: Weather Service International
This picture shows the temperature (in Fahrenheit) departure from normal during this recent cold snap.
Late Sunday night, extraordinarily cold temperatures made their way into Texas. As the temperature dropped, the people of Texas switched on the heat, with much of it being electric, in an effort to stay warm. Unfortunately, people weren't the only ones to feel the cold grip of mother nature. Extremely low temperatures, ice, and snow caused power plants to go offline. As the demand for power rapidly shot up, supply drastically fell.
A year ago, Executive Order 20-01 cemented in a place Rhode Island’s goal to meet 100% of the state’s electricity demand with renewable energy by 2030. The Rhode Island Office of Energy Resources (OER) worked through the year on an economic and energy market analysis, and developed policy and programmatic pathways to meet the goal.
