A simple principle has shaped Texas’ electricity system for the last two decades: Developers should build the types of power plants they think will compete best in the clean energy industry on the state’s open market.
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As the cost of solar, wind, and grid batteries has plummeted in recent years, developers in the Lone Star State have increasingly opted to build clean energy projects — a whole lot of them. The state generated the most clean power in the nation last year, and solar and storage dominate new power capacity forecast to come online in 2025.
That principle — and Texas’ rapidly expanding clean energy industry — could be thrown out the window if a bill that recently passed the state Senate becomes law, Julian Spector reports for Canary Media. The legislation would require 50% of new power plant capacity in the state to be “sourced from dispatchable generation other than battery energy storage,” penalizing solar and wind power, which pair best with batteries.
An earlier iteration of SB 388 explicitly called for half of new power plants to “use natural gas,” and though the bill text no longer says that, the outcome would be the same: Gas would be the key beneficiary.
But developers aren’t exactly lining up to build gas plants. It can take years to source the specialized parts needed to get gas power plants built and running, while solar panels and batteries are mass-produced and can be installed far more quickly and cheaply. In fact, back in 2023 Texas created a $5 billion fund to issue low-interest loans to companies building gas power plants — but last month a developer that had applied for loans for two such projects withdrew them due to “equipment procurement constraints.”
An SB 388–driven slowdown of renewable deployment would meanwhile pose reliability challenges for the state, which famously suffered major blackouts in 2021 in large part because of challenges in the gas system. Since then, solar and batteries have repeatedly helped the state avoid weather-related outages. And with data centers, cryptocurrency mining operations, and new manufacturing all slated to boost Texas’ energy demand, the state is going to need more cheap, fast, clean power — not less.
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Put reliability over politics, power grid leaders say
Leaders of the country’s seven power operating systems told Congress on Tuesday that it should prioritize reliability over politics as it considers the future of the U.S. energy system. Electricity demand is set to rise dramatically as more data centers and other power-hungry facilities come online and people adopt EVs and electric appliances. Pitting clean energy against fossil fuels will only lead to power shortages and higher prices, the executives said.
New England in particular faces a “serious challenge” if political battles over clean energy continue, the head of its grid operator said. The region is counting on offshore wind to meet growing demand, but President Donald Trump’s attacks on the industry throw that future into uncertainty.
This article was originally published on Energy Network and republished here, with permission, under a Creative Commons BY-ND 4.0 license. See our third-party content disclaimer.
