The forecast calls for sunny and very warm days in D-FW next week. That means more heat and more stress on the grid as Texans use air conditioning to stay cool.
But while you hide from the sun, be sure to thank him; this summer, solar power will help maintain air conditioning across the state.
On a recent business day, ERCOT reported that about 20% of the grid's electricity comes from solar power. As electricity demand increases and summer heats up, solar and other renewable energy sources are becoming more important parts of the Texas power grid, according to ERCOT and Texas Energy Experts.
Most of the state's solar power comes from large utility-scale power plants that have many panels. Michael Weber, a professor of energy resources at the University of Texas at Austin, was surprised by the amount of renewable energy powering the grid this summer. "That's a lot of pollution that we don't burn (and) we don't dispose of," he said.
Scientists in Texas and elsewhere continue to improve solar technology and drive down costs. Researchers say it works. Data from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's Department of Energy, Markets and Policy shows that Texas is expanding solar generation faster than any other state.
But Weber and other researchers say more politics and business than technology are holding back the widespread adoption of solar power.
Despite record ERCOT renewable energy production this summer, leaders warn that electricity generation from oil and gas isn't going anywhere.
ERCOT CEO Pablo Vegas said a reliable green grid must include both renewable and conventional oil and gas power.
"We continue to trust both sides. Because the sun doesn't always shine and the wind doesn't always blow. "Renewable electricity outages are inevitable," he said.
Advanced batteries help solve the reliability problem, Vegas added. Many solar power plants are equipped with storage batteries to store excess energy during the day, night or sunset. Conventional batteries can only store solar energy for a few hours, Vegas said.
For its part, the Texas Public Policy Foundation warned that reliance on solar and other renewable energy sources is dangerous. Unpredictable resources like wind and solar mean unpredictable resources, the foundation says.
Jason Isaacs of the Texas Energy Policy Initiative said: "Reliability becomes a bigger issue as we become more dependent on climate-controlled energy generation." Public Policy Foundation. "It's a little scary."
Isaac argued that solar and other renewable energies have hidden costs. He said that, for example, taxpayers have to pay for oil and gas plants to operate at sunrise.
Energy providers tend to build solar farms outside of areas where electricity is most needed. "Go where you can find the cheapest land under the sun," said Isaac. That means it's very expensive to provide electricity to the urban areas that need it, he said.
Governor Greg Abbott and other Republican lawmakers are skeptical of renewables. In 2021, after a winter storm in Texas caused massive power outages, Abbott attributed the outages to wind and solar power outages. Much of the lost supply came from coal and gas-fired power plants that were shut down during the storm.
"We have sun".
William Schaferman, director of the Energy Conservation Institute at the University of Delaware's Solar Energy Research Center, said that solar-generated energy doesn't cause the same pollution as energy from burning natural gas or coal.
The sun is also renewable because it doesn't disappear anytime soon. Shaferman says coal and natural gas will eventually run out, making them less sustainable in the long run. "Our planet is burning ... and we need to generate energy without putting carbon into the atmosphere," he said.
ERCOT, which provides 90% of Texas' electricity this year, says less than 6% of the grid's electricity will come from solar by 2022. That doesn't seem like much, especially considering the amount of sun in the state. But this percentage is growing significantly.
The 2022 statistics show that Texas is producing 10 times more solar energy than it did five years ago, and nearly 200 times more than it did 10 years ago.
In Texas, where the sun is brightest, the percentage of solar energy is highest in the afternoon. On monthly and annual averages, this percentage is lower because it includes energy consumption at night and on days of low productivity.
Weber said solar power is helping meet the state's growing energy needs. "We have a growing population and a growing economy. This makes it possible to build new renewable energy plants to power the Texas power grid. "We have very cheap, flat, sunny and windy land. "[And] we have the sun."
California produces the most solar power of any state, according to the US Energy Information Administration, which compiles data on electricity generation. But if solar expansion in Texas continues at its current rate, it will soon overtake California.
The sunlight from the roof is still there
However, California still leads Texas in the number of people with tinder on their roofs.
Julia Hsu, professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Texas at Dallas, works on solar energy technology and has solar panels on the roof of her house.
"It's expensive because someone has to come and put all these layers of silicone on your roof," he said. Texas offers incentives, but not enough to cover the costs, he said.
During the day, Hsu can sell excess electricity from the panels to ERCOT. But ERCOT costs him more than he earns from selling power overnight when his panels are inefficient, he said.
More people would install solar panels if ERCOT bought excess solar power at a coordinated price for use at night, Hsu said.
Get cheaper
Rooftop solar systems can be expensive for individuals, but solar power is very affordable for large utility companies.
"Solar energy... is the cheapest way to produce electricity known to us," said Shafarman. But they did not satisfy him and other solar experts. "We are ... working on ways to reduce [costs]," he said.
Hsu and Shafarman noted that if the manufacturing of solar cells can be streamlined and simplified, the panels themselves will become more affordable. However, you want to make sure the panels are still efficient enough to convert sunlight into electricity.
Hsu and Shafarman use additional methods to reduce the cost of solar cell manufacturing. Shafarman works on thin-film solar cells. Conventional solar modules are based on bulk silicon wafers that must be individually cut and cleaned.
A layer of material that does real work in thin sheet panels can in principle be applied to large panes. "It's a very simple manufacturing process," Shafarman said.
Instead of using an oven, Hsu's team is developing a method to heat the solar cells with light during production. He compares it to heating something in the microwave instead of the oven; the process is faster and more expensive.
Many groups are also working to develop cheap, reliable, high-capacity batteries that can store electricity produced by the sun during the day and use it after sunset.
Political and economic issues
While efforts have been made to improve solar cells and make them cheaper, Hsu, Shafarman and Weber agree that there is no single technology that will accelerate the growth of solar energy.
"I don't think it has anything to do with the solar panels," Hsu said. "Solar panels work great." Instead, he believes that lowering installation costs and providing more incentives will be the most effective way to promote solar growth. "None of these [problems] can be solved by scientists," he said.
Labor shortages and supply chain disruptions could slow solar growth. In addition, the construction of a new solar power plant requires a study to determine how the plant fits into the overall grid.
There is a long list of solar and wind projects awaiting this type of research. As of late 2022, planned solar projects in Texas have waited an average of two years to complete their research, according to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. That puts Texas at the bottom of the US wait time scale.
Solar panel regulations can vary from city to city. Therefore, it is difficult for companies to obtain permission for the production of large panels. "There's an incredible amount at stake," Schaferman said.
Because of Texas' roots in the oil industry, renewable energy is also a big issue in the state, according to Weber. “Very rich oil and gas tycoons don't like wind and solar and are wasting their money trying to block them.
Judd Messer is vice president of the Advanced Power Alliance, a renewable energy advocacy group. According to him, most of the political upheavals are not at all about the positive and negative aspects of renewable energy.
"Renewable energy has almost become a public issue ... it shows how conservative you are," he said.
The Texas Public Policy Foundation's opposition to solar expansion is tantamount to supporting the free market, Isaacs said. "We are committed to ... affordable and reliable electricity," he said. Basically, the sun is neither one nor the other.
Messer disagrees, especially as battery technology advances and solar power becomes more affordable. "Right now, if you don't have cheap resource energy costs (such as solar and wind), the incremental costs of electricity are going to be higher," he said.
Despite the political hurdles, Shafarman believes the main factor holding solar back is simply time. With so little solar capacity—Texas received just 0.1% of its solar power in 2012—it's taking time to grow. "We still have a long way to go and we're getting there," he said.
"The installation of solar energy is a great achievement," said Shafarman. We won.
Staff reporters Jose Luis Adriano and Philip Jankowski contributed to this report. Lila Levinson reports on science for the Dallas Morning News in association with the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
