Texas is where the future of energy is being tested. In this week’s Halcyon post, @nathanielbullard.com joins @douglewin.bsky.social to dig into ERCOT’s soaring load queue, the state’s one-of-a-kind market, and what its data signals for the rest of the country. Read + listen 👇 hubs.ly/Q03RNcSl0

Texas severely lags on residential demand response, making reliability risks higher than they need to be; PUC Staff recommended higher profits for Texas' largest electricity utility; and Texas added 1.3 gigawatts of solar & storage in October. Link in reply. 1/2

Oncor wants a billion more per year in rate increases but "does not consider" DERs in its planning. DERs could save $8.5 billion over 10 years. It's time for regulators to require some form of competition and price discovery for the socialized distribution system. 1/2

1,200 Texans are already building America’s solar future. Doug Lewin talks with Dan Barcelo (T1 Energy) on how Texas could make every step of the solar supply chain, from polysilicon to panels, right here.

Texas doesn’t wait for permission to build. Doug Lewin and Dan Barcelo (T1 Energy) explore how Texas’ “build, build, build” spirit could turn distributed power into sovereign energy and why that matters for the next boom.

Over 75% of power installed last year globally was solar and over 75% of that was made in China. Can the US manufacture enough solar for our needs and maybe enough to export? I talked with T1 Energy CEO Dan Barcelo about building a solar supply chain in Texas. 1/2

ERCOT demand is up 5% year-over-year & 23% since 2021 with nearly all of the demand growth being met by wind, solar & batteries, according to EIA. Solar has gone from a barely perceptible sliver to nearly 15% in only 4 years, with most of the growth in the last year. 1/2

AI data centers aren't driving bills higher. In many places, rising demand is lowering costs as fixed costs are spread out to more users. 1/2

There are nearly 23 gigawatts of thermal plants offline for maintenance as Texas continues to have way above average heat. To pick up the slack, batteries are deploying for longer periods; they discharged over 3,000 megawatts for 2+ hours Tuesday evening. 1/2

Load growth lowers costs customers, according to a recent LBL / Brattle study. There is a lot more potential for residential bill reductions. More on that study, Base's billion dollar raise, Corpus Christi running out of water, and much more in the link in the reply 1/2

LBL/Brattle study shines light on factors driving power prices, notes medium price reductions from market-based renewables; also, reckoning with China's growth; Corpus Christi is running out of water; Base raises a billion, and much more: www.douglewin.com/p/market-ba...

Don't miss Aurora's 2nd Annual Energy Transition Forum in NYC next week October 21. Link to register in the reply. 1/2

Electricity costs are increasing nationwide, but the idea that clean energy drives up prices? The data clearly doesn't support those claims. States that added renewables fastest generally have lower electricity costs.

NYC people: Don't miss DERvos this Friday! I'll be there and you should, too. Link to register in the reply. 1/2

Austin energy people: Don't miss this great event hosted by Gridraven tomorrow at Capital Factory downtown. #txenergy 1/2

Data shows Administration's claims on renewables are wrong, states with higher shares of renewables typically have lower electricity costs. Markets are choosing renewables based on price. Also, buyers' remorse from the Permian as oil prices plunge. 1/2

There are two new battery energy storage records in Texas: largest instantaneous amount of storage (8.63 gigawatts) and largest percent of load met by storage (13.2%). Battery energy storage is up 100% year-over-year. 1/2

Texas is about to get a 400 MW / 1.8 gigawatt-hour battery. The second and third phases will have 5-hour duration storage, the first project of its kind in Texas. I wrote today about how decisions over a new ancillary service could attract longer duration storage – or not. 1/2

Join me this morning on Chambers of Innovation's webinar. Link in reply.

Oil & gas vs renewables is a false fight. In fact, many oil and gas producers want to connect to the grid to power their operations with renewables. “More energy, less emissions” should be our path forward. 1/

AI is just the start. Robotics, biotech & advanced computing will drive terawatt-scale demand. Texas has the mix to lead, but only if we plan in terawatts, not gigawatts.

Reducing energy waste in homes could offset all projected data center demand. @rewiringamerica's new report shows how: in exchange for speed to power, data centers fund residential load reductions. Households get lower bills & the grid gets more reliable. Link in reply 1/2

Cheap power brings new industries. Higher demand leads to higher prices which leads to more solar + storage and cheaper power again. Check out the TribCast with Eric Goff on how Texas is doing this and more, featured in this week's Reading and Podcast Picks www.douglewin.com/p/helping-t...

My friends at Aurora are hodling their second annual Energy Transition Forum in NYC October 21. Topics include grid reliability, AI, and investment. Join alongside leaders from utilities, finance and the gov't for a conversation you don't want to miss. Registration in the reply

Texas is now #1 in utility scale battery storage with 14 gigawatts, passing California. That gives Texas the #1 spot in wind, utility scale solar, and storage. Good thing, too, because yesterday Texans shattered ERCOT's previous October peak demand by nearly 4 gigawatts. 1/2

If you’re working on grid modernization, clean energy buildout, or just want to connect with others in this space, Intersolar's Texas event is a can't miss. I'll be on a keynote panel and hope to see you there. Find out more and get a discount here buff.ly/00pIV3f

Secretary Wright said that "Texas has the fastest rising wholesale electricity prices of any region in the country, 100 percent rise in wholesale prices from the start of the Biden administration to today." Uh, no. That's wrong. More info in the link in the reply.

ERCOT CEO Pablo Vegas told the Board last week “The additions of solar & batteries have helped us handle the growth in the summer months, where we’ve seen a lot more consumption.” Link to Claire Hao's article about grid performance this summer & more in the link in the reply 1/2

Energy use is way up in Texas but power prices have bucked the national trend and actually declined over the summer, mostly due to solar + storage records. VPPs are also growing in Texas and beginning to put a downward pressure on prices, too. 1/2

ERCOT’s wholesale market creates consumer savings and producer profits. Bankruptcies aren’t a bug, they’re a feature. Investors risk their own capital, not ratepayers. Markets discover what works through trial and error. #TxEnergy #GridReliability #CleanEnergy #EnergyPolicy #ERCOT

Recent @heatmap_news poll shows who Americans blame for higher electricity bills: their local utility and state government over Biden or Trump. Voters/consumers want lower prices but a lot of actions by the federal government will lead to higher prices. 1/3

According to IEEFA using ERCOT data, "since 2016, demand in ERCOT has jumped 39.2%; renewables have provided the power for 95.7% of that growth.” Another summer of records shows what’s possible when clean energy scales. 1/2

Texas isn't the only ones breaking records. China is exporting massive amounts of green tech to the developing world. Noahpinion had a great article on the impact of China's clean energy export machine... 1/2

The ERCOT Board will hear today that solar and storage "made the summer uneventful." Of course, uneventful is good. "Events," in grid parlance, are usually major problems. And there are a record 6 gigawatts of new resources coming in Q1. #txlege #txenergy 1/

Can AI data centers lower costs for residential consumers? Also, who's getting blamed for high energy costs? Is bipartisan permitting reform in DC possible? Can we have a "pragmatic climate reset"? And more on quarantining monopolies: www.douglewin.com/p/who-do-am...

Yesterday’s regulation rewarded spending, not efficiency. ERCOT proves competition works. The next frontier is price discovery in distribution. Reliability per dollar depends on it. #TxEnergy #GridReliability #CleanEnergy #EnergyPolicy #ERCOT

ERCOT's Large load queue has tripled in the last year and is now 70% data centers. Forward prices are up 15-20% compared to last year Also, the largest and newest coal plant in Texas (and the US) is offline for 2 years. That and more here: www.douglewin.com/p/large-loa...

The monopoly utility business model stretches back over 100 years. It was phenomenally successful to bring electrification to the masses, but does it meet our current needs? Lynne Kiesling and I dig into that in part 1 of 2 here: www.douglewin.com/p/the-hidde...

We’ve lost the ability to say, “I might be wrong.” Incentives push us toward certainty, not curiosity. Leaders model contempt, not dialogue. The spirit of liberty lives in humility, in weighing another view. That’s what we must recover.

Reports out this week on escalating gas turbine costs and China's rising energy dominance. Plus news of Speaker Johnson's support for offshore wind, a podcast on the economic impacts of renewables in rural Texas & the prospects for a bipartisan permitting bill. Link in the reply.

Should be an interesting one at the PUC today. Chairman Gleeson proposed a price cap on Entergy Texas' two new gas plants so their customers don't bear the risk of cost overruns. Meeting at 9:30 a.m. CT. Link with more info in the reply. 1/2

The utility business model was crafted at the turn of the century. Not this century, the last one: 125 years ago. It's outdated and is a key driver in higher energy bills for consumers. How do we fix that? 1/3

Gas turbine manufacturing is ramping up, but even if manufacturers doubled output, they wouldn't produce enough capacity to provide one-sixth of the world's new demand by 2040. That and much more here: www.douglewin.com/p/the-gas-t...

Batteries break records each of last two nights; 2 GW of mostly solar + storage entered commercial operations in ERCOT last month; and ERCOT unveils proposal for residential demand response program. All in this week's Texas Grid Roundup. #txlege #txenergy www.douglewin.com/p/batteries...

Gas turbines face big headwinds: ⚡ Manufacturing can’t keep pace w/ demand 📈 Costs doubled to $2,500/kW for 2030 delivery 🔥 Gas projected $4–$5/MMBtu next year That's why renewables + batteries, are 90% of new supply added globally. 🎧 tinyurl.com/56brtrzb

Today in Texas solar provided more than one-third of the power for 8 straight hours, peaking over 29,000 megawatts at 1:25 for the 3rd highest total ever. Last night, batteries set an all time record @ 7.3 gigawatts. Despite an 80 GW peak, prices have been <2.5c/kWh all day.

Peak demand is lower in 2025 but overall energy consumption is way up. In the Far West Texas zone, energy use has tripled in the last 8 years. The interconnection queue for gas plants is up 150% in the last year. All that and much, much more here: www.douglewin.com/p/watch-tex...

The Houston Chronicle covers the affordability crisis; the Administration's attacks on clean energy upend Texas' economic development; "The Electric Slide"; distributed batteries in Texas; AI and electricity; energy affordability; and more www.douglewin.com/p/the-affor...

Rudy Garza of CPS Energy put it best: We’re operating in four dimensions - tech, policy, reliability, and customer needs all shifting at once. No one will solve it for us. It takes systems, customers, and open-mindedness. 🎧 Full episode: tinyurl.com/bdhdwk97

Staff files questions and rule drafts for SB 6 implementation to change planning for large AI loads; ERCOT lays out grid transformation vision; minor energy efficiency rule moves to comment period, bigger changes delayed again, increasing risk of outages. www.douglewin.com/p/large-loa...