As Republicans continue to lie about the the future of coal in the world, the Lone Star state reached a milestone on renewable electricity this past month. According to Chron 4, Texas’s wind power capacity surpassed coal for the first time.
When a 155-megawatt wind farm in West Texas began commercial operation this month, it pushed the state's wind power capacity to more than 20,000 megawatts, surpassing 19,800 megawatts of capacity from coal-fired power plants, according to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which oversees 90 percent of the state's grid. One megawatt is enough to power 200 homes on a hot Texas day.
There is no need to fret for the “economically anxious,” as natural gas and coal still generate the majority of the state’s power—for now. America’s getting made great again, haven’t you heard?
The imminent shutdown of three coal-fired power plants owned by Dallas-based Vistra Energy and the loss of their 4,000 megawatts of capacity will further tip the scales in wind's favor, said Joshua Rhodes, a research fellow at the University of Texas' Energy Institute in Austin. In October, Vistra announced the pending shutdowns of its Monticello, Big Brown and Sandow coal plants, triggering the loss of more than 800 jobs and the closure of two coal mines. The shutdown of the Vistra plants are the first retirements of coal-fired power plants since Texas deregulated power markets in 2002.
Huh. I thought the Republican Party fixed that.
Rhodes is already watching for the next milestone — when Texas' wind farms will generate more power than its coal plants. Based on models of ERCOT, Rhodes expects that switch to happen in 2019. ERCOT, meanwhile, is looking to transform the way it predicts surges in wind — a mercurial power source in West Texas, where winds blow strongest at night when power demand is lowest, sometimes producing so much electricity that they drive wholesale prices to zero.
Time to find a job training program in renewables.