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The bright lights of Texas: Distribution-scale solar goes big in the Lone Star state
- April 1, 2018: Vol. 5, Number 4

The bright lights of Texas: Distribution-scale solar goes big in the Lone Star state

by Titiaan Palazzi and Dan Seif

Texas has long been known as the capital of oil and gas, yet over the past decade it added so much wind power that if Texas were a country, it would be the world’s fourth-largest producer. Looking back at the past few years, a fourth energy trend can be added: the growth of solar photovoltaics.

Texas has added 1.8 gigawatts of solar to date, more than 80 percent of that in the past two years, ranking it third in the nation by new capacity. The Texas solar industry now employs about 10,000 people, more than double the number of people employed three years ago.

Astonishing even to solar-power proponents, the state’s main grid operator, Electric Reliability Council of Texas, forecasted that solar would be the only economically viable new power source from now to 2031 in six of eight potential scenarios, forecasting between 15 and 28 gigawatts of new solar photovoltaics.

Most of Texas’ solar installations have been utility-scale: large arrays installed on vast swaths of arid land, transported by high-voltage transmission lines to cities such as Dallas, Houston, Austin and San Antonio. Yet now a different revolution is picking up steam. This revolution is driven by local electric cooperatives and municipal utilities buying distribution-scale solar, 1 to 10 megawatt arrays installed on the distribution grid, in or on the outskirts of cities. More than 20 small Texas utilities have pursued distribution-scale solar, now totaling about 100 megawatts, the equivalent of a small natural gas plant.

The main reason for this surge in distribution-scale solar is favorable economics. A single 1-megawatt solar array can save small utilities up to 50 percent of their power procurement costs.

Distribution-scale solar avoids using the transmission grid because electricity is produced close to load. There is basically no use of transmission or transmission-level generation capacity. It’s like renting office space close to home, so that you can skip use of toll-road highways and limit yourself to local roads. You do not use the toll road and, therefore, you should not need to pay.

Of course, these savings accrue to the driver only when the mechanism is fair — in the case of toll roads, you pay when you use. Fortunately, most Texas utilities face tariff structures with their generation and transmission utility, or the wholesale power grid, that accurately reflect the value of solar to the grid.

 

Excerpted from the Rocky Mountain Institute article “Distribution-Scale Solar Goes Big in Texas,” authored by Titiaan Palazzi and Dan Seif. To read the complete article, go to this link: https://bit.ly/2DiFcvm.

 

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