Where Renewables Lead, Storage Follows

Canary Media: “How Texas became the hottest grid battery market in the country.” Over the last 10 yrs, ‘solar photovoltaics have ascended from a power industry sideshow to the biggest source of new generation in the U.S.‘ The technologies ‘stunning success’ created demand for energy storage to make solar power available when twilight predictably ensues. Previously states like California + Massachusetts had legislated climate policies aimed at jump-starting the commercial battery industry. “But this year, for the first time ever, the fastest-growing energy storage market appears to be Texas, a free-market-affirming red state that officially cares little about solving climate change.” Some feel that the state’s low-regulation + business-friendly dogma created the conditions to ‘build batteries quickly and at scale, just like it previously incubated thriving wind and solar markets.’ 2021 companies began inaugurating Texan battery plants,reaching 5.1 gigawatts [GW] of storage [comparable to 5 nukes] with another 6.4 GW scheduled for this yr. “This was pure wild west investment based on the growing need for fast-ramping and flexible generation in relatively short but predictable bursts to be the glue for the grid.” On the warm spring night of April 28, people were cranking up air conditioning, + “gas and coal plants were pumping out 40 gigawatts of power — but another 27 gigawatts of thermal plants were offline, undergoing maintenance ahead of the bustling summer season.” To the resuce came ‘enormous, digitally controlled batteries [red arrow on graph] across the Lone Star State [which] rapidly injected 2 gigawatts of power into ERCOT’s wires just before 8 p.m., staving off potential power shortfalls and lowering electricity costs for customers.’ Then on May 8th a similar shortage loomed, + “batteries surged more than 3 gigawatts onto the wires, beating the April 28 record. Got it? First energy efficiency [including in transmission], then renewables, finally storage—these are the easiest, fastest, cheapest ways to re-engineer the grid.