• Public

  • Public
  • Network
  • Groups
  • Featured
  • Popular
  • People

A consolidated-for-space screenshot from an article on The Hill: Texas Senate passes bill requiring solar plants to provide power at night The Texas Senate passed a bill Thursday that leading business interests fear would lead to an age of expensive power and rolling blackouts. If passed by the House, state S.B. 715 would require all renewable projects — even existing ones — to buy backup power, largely from coal or gas plants. This would require solar plants in particular to buy backup power to “match their output at night — a time when no one expects them to produce energy and when demand is typically at its lowest anyway,” consultant and energy expert Doug Lewin wrote in an April analysis. In addition to more expensive power, the TAB study found, Texans would also get a higher risk of blackouts in the heat of summer or in future ice storms. The bill follows two prior bills passed by the Texas Senate that target the state’s nation-leading renewables industry. S.B. 388 requires every new megawatt of renewables to be matched by a megawatt of new gas power — effectively throttling the growth of the state electric production in an environment where new gas turbines are in short supply. And S.B. 819, championed by suburban Republican Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, would use “the police power of the state” to restrict landowners from leasing their property to wind and solar companies.