Renewable energy has a big role to play in Texas’ future and the best approach is to consider all sources as part of the overall package.
That’s according to Judd Messer, Texas vice president of the Advanced Power Alliance, and Waco economist Ray Perryman.
Messer said Wednesday that putting all of Texas’ resources together in a cooperative fashion would help establish efficient markets to provide cheaper electricity and hedges for reliability and affordability.
“To deliver this low-cost power, policymakers must focus on building a more robust transmission infrastructure with an eye toward long-term economic benefits for consumers,” said Messer, whose Austin-based trade organization promotes the development of wind and solar power and energy storage.
“Stated plainly, we need more high-voltage power lines to efficiently deliver consumers the cheapest power because doing so will benefit residential consumers, manufacturers along the Gulf Coast and drillers in the Permian Basin,” he said.
Messer said insufficient transmission infrastructure has cost Texas consumers nearly $2.5 billion this year because electricity “is often trapped behind transmission bottlenecks.
“A transmission infrastructure that the grid can grow into is critical for reliability and this investment will pay for itself when more low-cost energy makes it to the consumer,” he said.
Asserting that a “technology agnostic” tack is needed, Messer said, “The key to this energy expansion remains a level playing field in Texas for all resources.
“The support that renewable energy has received over the years has led to a desire by some policymakers to penalize renewables. The best case is a technology agnostic approach that treats all sources of energy equally. If we do that, Texas will continue to lead the world in the production of all energy resources and its citizens will benefit.”
Messer said Texas led the nation in renewable energy production in the first quarter of this year, accounting for over 14 percent of the nation’s totals. “This investment stretches far and wide across our state and many times these wind or solar projects become the lifeblood of rural areas as one of the key capital-intensive economic development options for small, rural communities,” he said.
“This supports existing services and population by boosting local tax revenues and providing landowners an avenue to earn extra revenue.”
Perryman said Wednesday that Texas is by far the leading generator of wind energy in the country and it’s seeing major investments in solar facilities.
“Other forms of renewable energy are also gaining traction,’ Perryman said. “The state has the experience, climate and intellectual capital to be a leader in shaping the world’s energy future.”
He said projections from the U.S. Department of Energy and other major sources are that increasing levels of oil and gas production will be needed to meet global requirements even as renewable energy usage sees enormous growth.
“The future will see an all-of-the-above energy complex and Texas is well positioned to be a major supplier of both conventional and renewable resources,” Perryman said. “Both will be major generators of business activity in the state.”
Messer said Texas should not envisage moving completely away from fossil fuels but instead should advocate “an energy expansion with more of everything.
“This is important when considering how vital energy is to our economy and how complementary all sources of energy production are for one another,” he said. “For example, renewables are increasingly selected by oil and gas producers in the Permian Basin to electrify their operations.
“In the Permian, the oil and gas industry expects electric demand for operators to grow 10 times within the next eight years. By using renewable energy for their power, they pay lower costs and reduce their carbon emissions, making their products more attractive to consumers around the world. It’s an economic win and a win for the environment.
“When it comes to the electric grid, compatibility is underscored yet again,” Messer said. “Clean-burning natural gas provides enhanced reliability while renewable energy resources give electricity consumers a low-cost, predictable source day in and day out with solar production increasing when the sun shines and wind following a complementary trajectory at night.”
The U.S. Energy Information Administration says renewables are the fastest-growing segment of electric power generation in the country with 24 percent of the nation’s electrical generation coming from them in the first half of 2022.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas recently reported that nearly 23 megawatts of solar power, eight MW of wind and just over eight MW of dispatchable storage and natural gas electrical generation are in the late stages of development in the state.
Texas has more than 150 wind farms and innumerable sources of solar power including homeowners’ photovoltaic sheets on their roofs.
