Texas Talks Wind and Solar Power
AUSTIN, Texas — Despite President Obama’s plans to increase renewable energies, such as wind and solar power, renewable energy advocates in Texas are struggling to make progress in those areas.
Although Texas has become one of the leading wind power states, cheap natural gas and shrinking budgets have deterred Texas politicians to support wind or solar power ever since Governor Rick Perry and lawmakers approved a mandate in 2005 to build 5,880 megawatts of renewable power capacity by 2015. At the same time, they were behind construction of billons of dollars worth of transmission lines to reach wind farms.
Representative Mark Strama, democrat of Austin, said the support for renewable energy has decreased because of the effect of fracking, a drilling technology that captures natural gas, as reported by The New York Times.
Wind industry advocates are currently asking the legislature to renew Chapter 313, a tax incentive for economic development that lets wind farms temporarily lower their property tax bills. The incentive expires next year, and one lawmaker filed legislation to renew it until 2024. If it’s not renewed, wind energy companies will likely invest in wind farms in parts of the Midwest, such as Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska.
The wind industry also plans to defend the renewable energy mandate against groups like the Public Utility Commission, which recommended that lawmakers repeal it because they say wind power is a strain on the electric grid. While Texas has more than 12,000 megawatts of wind power and expects further growth since Congress extended a federal tax credit, a repeal isn’t necessary, and environmental organizations fear it would be bad for the industry.
Repealing the mandate would also be bad for representatives in the solar industry, who continue to seek a “non-wind” requirement that could help their technology. Differences aside, Representative Rafael Anchia, democrat of Dallas, introduced House Bill 723, which sets a goal of 1,500 megawatts of non-wind renewable installations by 2022. Strama also wants to introduce a bill that would pay Texans with rooftop solar panels for any extra power they add to the electric grid.
Environment Texas, a citizen-based environmental advocacy organization, also called on the state to create policies that encourage solar power by having a goal to build 4,000 megawatts of solar energy capacity by 2020, establishing a fund to help schools install solar, adopting statewide standards that give homeowners and small businesses money for the additional solar electricity they supply to the grid, and updating the Property-Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing law to allow lenders to give commercial and residential property owners a long-term financing option for solar PV systems.
“For the past three years, Texas has faced a looming energy shortfall based on rapid demand growth,” said Principal Solar Executive Michael Martin in a statement, “but solar can fulfill this shortfall well, demonstrating excellent daily and seasonal correlation to peak demand.”
According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Texas has the potential to generate more than 100 times its current electric use from solar power.