"Coal-fired power generation in Texas, pummeled by clean, no-fuel-cost wind over the past 10 years, is about to be hit by a second wave of competition from renewables as utility-scale solar power, which is still only a small component of the state's generation mix, stands to gain significant market share over the next few years." [...]
"David Arrington will always remember April 20, 2020. The Midland oilman woke up that Monday morning to a series of texts from friends. 'Hey, price of oil is getting low.'" Click Here »
"Texas is expected to be one of the only U.S. power markets with higher electricity demand this summer, which bodes for an exciting few months for some energy companies .....The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the grid operator for roughly 90% of Texas’s electric load, expects to set another record for peak electricity demand [...]
"More heavyweight wind developers are betting big on solar. Here are five to watch in the decade ahead." https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/five-large-scale-wind-developers-pivoting-to-solar
"For much of the past two years, Bureau of Economic Geology Director Scott W. Tinker has been traveling the world to film a crucial documentary that illustrates the crisis of energy poverty. Some 2.5 billion people live in some form of energy poverty today. Access to secure energy impacts all other major humanitarian issues, [...]
"ERCOT adjusted its peak load forecast to 75,200 MW to account for economic impacts related to COVID-19. The new forecast is 1,496 MW less than what was reported in the preliminary summer SARA and increases the summer 2020 reserve margin to 12.6%, up from 10.6%. However, the new forecast is still higher than ERCOT’s [...]
"A concise three-sentence letter sent by the U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday suggests relief is on the way for a renewables industry concerned about meeting quickly approaching tax credit deadlines. The letter came in response to a late April appeal from a bipartisan group of senators, who asked that the Department extend deadlines for [...]
"It's unclear why this last week's data shows a deepening of the belly of the curve, given the continuation of high temperatures. But as for the steepening of the duck's "neck," Hinson noted that Austin typically has a lively nightlife. But under lockdown, people who might otherwise go out in the evening stayed home [...]
"....Batteries are on the cusp of .... making intermittent power sources such as wind and solar into a supply as dependable as natural gas.....Utilities want to invest in the lucrative market......But power generators are fighting to keep utilities out......." https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/article/How-will-batteries-plug-into-Texas-power-grid-15031826.php
"Falling battery costs, increasing renewables on the grid and a focus on resilience and reliability will continue to drive growth in the energy storage sector in 2020. Storage has had a good year, experts say: multiple states have made storage deployment a priority, utilities began rolling out pilot programs and battery prices continued to [...]
