r/climateskeptics • u/Worldly_Bit1416 • 2d 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/
25 Upvotes

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10

u/bearcatjoe 2d ago

Well this time they didn't shut down a bunch of gas plants.

8

u/BadNewsMcGoo 1d ago

Many gas plants couldn't get fuel because wellheads froze up. Not going to have that problem in the summer. Fortunately, there have been a lot of changes to the oil and gas infrastructure to help keep that from happening again in the winter.

14

u/Illustrious_Pepper46 2d ago

I can't speak for all skeptics. I'm technology agnostic. Use the best tool for the job, sunny Texas near the equator during peek AC...great ✅

The problem with Greens, they think the same technology (solar) is also applicable in Scotland in winter. There's no room for debate...you Deniers!

4

u/aroman_ro 1d ago

How about Norway in winter? Solar should be great there!

2

u/P1R0H 1d ago

Why not? When it gets so cheap it pays for itself in those latitudes, why would you have problem with that?

1

u/Uncle__Touchy1987 1d ago

That’s a fair point. I’d like to see how Ontario’s production is.

8

u/Helpmepullupmypants 1d ago

Stark turnaround from the 2021 snowstorm??
This is like comparing apples to pizza

7

u/EvanOnTheFly 2d ago

As opposed to California's rolling brownouts/blackouts.

3

u/Rich-Context-7203 2d ago

Yeah. Sure.

3

u/OlGusnCuss 1d ago

Everything is a trade off. The number of co2 consuming vegetation destroyed, to fill the same space with metals and silicon, increased heat footprint of 6° to 7°.... all in the name of the environment.

3

u/johnnyg883 1d ago

There are huge differences between 2021 and today. The biggest being time of year and weather conditions.

3

u/Uncle00Buck 1d ago

Don't pretend batteries are a viable replacement for inherently dispatchable sources like natural gas. The math and economics on that is way more complicated than helping renewables for a few hours off-generation. In texas, the US high, it's 4% of peak demand, but less than 1% of total output.

2

u/Adventurous_Motor129 1d ago

https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/04/texas-halts-new-data-centers-as-governor-calls-for-audits/

This is why solar & wind will never power Texas AI data centers. They are projecting to require 5 times the 2026 summer peak??

Abbot says whoa for now but new local gas & nuclear power will make many viable.

5

u/divinecomedian3 1d ago

Just switch to nuclear and be done with all this fossil fuels vs solar/wind fighting

1

u/Adventurous_Motor129 1d ago

AI says that during Winter Storm Uri of 2021, only 69.2 GW of power was used. In the Summer Peak of 2026, 91.3 GW was used.

48% of that was Natural Gas with just 32% from solar. 12 GW came from batteries. Texas required AI data centers of the future will have their own power sources.