Texas is a red state. It has voted for the Republican presidential candidate in every election since 1980. And yet, as a result of efforts by several past Republican governors, Texas is a national leader in renewable energy, with wind and solar providing over 30% of the state's electricity in 2023. The state produces more wind power than any other state and ranks second in solar capacity.
Texas has very large energy needs that are driven by population growth, industrial expansion, and the rapid build-out of data centers and AI computing infrastructure. Texas is a still a major producer of oil and will continue to be. The notion that renewable energy development represents a threat to the fossil fuel economy is not likely to happen in Texas for a long time.
What distinguishes Texas from current federal energy policy is that Texas looks at energy as a competitive market question. Several areas of Texas contain some of the most productive wind corridors in the world where turbines operate at full output and consistently outperform national averages. As a result, wind supplies roughly a third of the electricity to the Texas grid at certain times of the year.
About 90% of new generation capacity in line to be connected to the grid is wind, solar, or battery storage. However, renewables alone can’t meet all the projected demand in Texas and the state will likely need new natural gas generation and possibly even new nuclear power. But meeting the state’s energy needs will not be dictated by political ideology. It will be determined by economics and technology.
