MarketWatch – February 16
As millions of people in Texas lost heat and electricity during a historic cold snap early this week, the future of renewable energy in the large-and-growing state drew fresh scrutiny. However, according to experts, the crisis in Texas was not caused by the state’s renewable energy industry. The largest loss of generation apparently came from gas-fired power plants, with the drop-off from wind farms a long way behind. There are specific lessons to be learned from Texas. For one thing, the state has several large population centers but renewable energy clusters are far away from major cities, requiring more miles of potentially vulnerable transmission lines. And, there is no winter-reliability mandate for the state-run utilities system as there is in other parts of the regulated U.S. The incident highlights the need for more incentives for renewables, or even other sources, to increase capacity, especially in severe winter weather.