![]() Texas still has an opportunity to lead the world in storing clean energy in hydrogen, a combustible gas easily blended with natural gas for power plants. China recently commissioned a 100 megawatt/400 megawatt-hour vanadium redox flow battery, which will help the grid rely more on clean energy. Other countries are ahead of the United States in developing new grid-scale battery technology. Nationally, companies have started work on 10 grid-scale battery manufacturing plants, and Abbott recently helped Elon Musk break ground on a new $375 million lithium refinery near Corpus Christi. Almost every new solar power facility is built with batteries nearby. No talent is required to keep your foot on the gas and turn the wheel.īattery storage is the most advanced, and currently available batteries can provide power to the grid for two-to-four hours. But to fight climate change, hundreds of companies are building creative ways to store electricity generated by wind and solar facilities. For the last 150 years, we’ve relied on energy that nature stored in fossil fuels. The Holy Grail for the electricity sector, though, is storage. The proposal is under consideration by the House State Affairs Committee. Sarah Eckhardt would require the PUC to achieve 1 percent of energy savings annually through energy efficiency. Texas spends 0.21 percent on energy efficiency and saw electricity use climb 11 percent while the population only rose 5 percent. Other states dedicate 1 percent of electricity sales to energy efficiency and have slowed demand growth. Texas consumers reap the rewards under this plan, not the shareholders of energy companies, which might explain why the Legislature doesn’t adopt it. ![]() “As a group, the benefits of these programs are nearly 2.9 times greater than the costs,” researchers concluded. The cost passed onto customers would be about $7 a month, but by 2030, the programs would save customers $18 a month in lower electricity bills, ACEEE said. None of the technology is exotic: heat pumps to replace old furnaces, improved insulation, upgraded water heaters, retrofit programs for old apartments and offices, smart thermostats and managed EV charging. “Current Texas EE and DR programs aim for low goals with low funding but could be expanded to reduce and slow a significant portion of energy demand growth at lower cost than traditional supply-side solutions,” the non-partisan research group found. ![]() The program would cost $8.4 billion over the next six years and better protect the climate than the Legislature’s plan to spend $18 billion on 10,000 megawatts of new natural gas power plants. Greg Abbott’s appointed chairman at the Public Utility Commission, lawmakers must force Texans to give tens of billions of dollars to prop up coal and natural gas plants owned by massive corporations. How can Texas boost electric reliability without spending billions on natural gas power plants? Let me count the ways. University of Texas students Frank Smith, Andres Cikota and Austin Mabrey converting a delivery truck from diesel power to hydrogen fuel cell and battery power in the laboratories of the Center for Electromechanics, The University of Texas at Austin. Alena Mozhjer, HO / TNS Show More Show Less 3 of3 is planning to invest $1.15 billion in central Texas to build and maintain two power plants that will combine solar generation and battery storage. Jon Shapley, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer Show More Show Less 2 of3Īerial view of solar power plant located in Arizona. Texas has more wind energy installed than any other state.
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