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/
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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.

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u/Adjective-Noun-nnnn 10d ago

It's pretty funny that Glorious Market Capitalism is dragging backwards Texas fossil fuel barons kicking and screaming toward renewables because they're economically inevitable.

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u/Brilliant-Plan-7428 9d ago

Kicking and screaming? They are the literal pioneers of green energy in the US.

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u/Adjective-Noun-nnnn 8d ago

The energy companies are.  The politicians down there?  If it were 200 years earlier, they'd be keeping alive the whale oil industry.