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.
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 recent report by the state’s grid operator shows that solar and wind helped to meet peak demand on days of peak power demand in August, including the scorching afternoon that set a new all-time record.
Even if your car is baking in the hot summer sun, you can imagine it staying cool under one of these solar carports recently built all across the country. Technologies include prefabricated framing, double cantilever canopies, and water management systems.
Dr. Miguel Oneto has developed a 682 MWdc solar power project in Childress County, Texas. The project is the second by the new developer, following a 324 MWdc project under construction nearby.
U.S. Department of Energy
It’s a story that would only happen in Texas, where everything is a little bit bigger – including the business opportunities.
In August of last year, pv magazine reported on a 240 MWac / 324 MWdc solar power project that broke ground in northern Texas. A couple of months later, the developer reached out to start a conversation with us about the next project he was developing, and gave us a bit of a background story.
