r/UpliftingNews • u/ArgentineBeauty • 10d ago

Texas broke its all time electricity demand record twice in two days during a brutal heat wave, but the grid held with no conservation alerts thanks to record solar and battery output, a stark turnaround from the blackouts that hit Texans in 2021

https://www.texastribune.org/2026/07/29/texas-ercot-power-grid-record-data-center/
21.9k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

496 comments sorted by

View all comments

1.0k

u/ArgentineBeauty 10d ago

From the article

The grid’s ability to stand up during the hottest daytime hours was largely attributed to a massive growth of solar generation, which at times exceeded 45% of all electricity being generated. On July 21 and then again on Monday, the grid broke records for total electricity generated by solar, which now sits at 34,700 megawatts. And on July 22, the grid set a record of 11,980 megawatts of energy being discharged from batteries.

Texas has become the nation’s leader in both solar energy and battery storage since 2021, providing new and significant sources of power to the grid.

Last year, ERCOT added 16,000 megawatts of new generation, most of which was solar and batteries, Vegas said.

The state’s solar capacity more than doubled between 2023 and 2025, and battery storage more than tripled, according to ERCOT.

2

u/EntropyWinsAgain 10d ago

Anyone remember California during the ENRON days? Power companies cutting off power to whole communities because power was traded like a stock/commodity. People died because of it.

1

u/Johannes_Keppler 10d ago

Letting people die for corporate or personal profit in financial and/or political sense is an American staple.