Last month, wind turbines and solar panels combined contributed nearly 39 percent of the power generated on the statewide grid, which is run by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. Solar generated 2,390 gigawatt hours of power last month, up 70 percent from the same time a year ago. The state’s solar output in May alone exceeded the total amount of solar power generated in Texas in all of 2017.
Wind turbines generated about a third of the state’s power last month. Wind hit an all-time high of more than 12,000 gigawatt hours, according to ERCOT data. That was up 37 percent from a year ago.
Nuclear plants generated 8 percent of Texas’ electricity in May.
Despite the increases, natural-gas fired generation remained the biggest source of power in ERCOT. Gas plants contributed 39 percent of the power in Texas last month, up from 36 percent a year earlier. Coal plants generated 13 percent, down from nearly 19 percent last May.
Natural gas prices have skyrocketed this year, making them a major driver of bigger utility bills in San Antonio and across Texas. The benchmark price for U.S. natural gas has nearly tripled in the past year, from less than $3 per unit a year ago to nearly $8.50 last week.
As a result, the average residential CPS customer’s bill for gas and electric service topped $136 in April, up nearly 20 percent from the same month a year ago. Costlier bills are due in part to higher rates CPS began charging in March, but about 70 percent of the increase is related to higher natural gas prices, the city-owned utility said.
But CPS is gradually shifting to more renewable sources of power. The utility last month signed a deal to purchase electricity from a 300 megawatt solar farm that energy developer Consolidated Edison will build in Goliad County over the next two to three years.
CPS is also expected to contract for another 600 megawatts of solar generation in the coming months, likely with different developers than Consolidated Edison.
Source: https://www.expressnews.com/business/article/Wind-solar-farms-Texas-record-17228117.php