In an opinion piece for the Houston Chronicle, Matthew Boms of Texas Advanced Energy Business Alliance (United's state affiliate), shares how President Biden's Inflation Reduction Act has transformed Texas' energy portfolio, with Texas now ranking as the nation's wind energy leader and a top state for utility-scale solar.
It's been two years since President Joe Biden signed the landmark Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) into law, sparking a surge of investments in energy innovation and manufacturing across the nation.
Perhaps no state has made better use of these opportunities than Texas, which has added new energy projects to the grid faster than any other state. This has made Texas’ grid more reliable and made electricity more affordable.
Texas already had the raw ingredients to lead energy innovation: its entrepreneurial frontier spirit, wealth of natural resources and booming economy. The IRA acted as an accelerant, delivering $16 billion worth of new renewable energy investments to Texas in the last two years. Thanks to those investments, 23,000 new jobs have been created or advanced in our state.
The transformation of our energy portfolio has been stark. In 2019, Texas had 2.4 gigawatts of utility-scale solar, enough to power 280,000 homes on a hot summer day according to ERCOT, but lagging behind other states with a head start in building renewable energy.
Fast-forward five years, and the state’s free-market energy policies, catalyzed by billions in federal investments, have enabled us to pass California as the top state for utility-scale solar and solidified our position as the nation’s wind energy leader. We’re also on track to build the most battery capacity in the nation in 2024.
We’re well-positioned to take advantage of the playing field thanks to a strategy that allows the state to integrate new, large-scale energy sources more rapidly than other states that require years of tedious studies and red tape. This market-driven approach has allowed wind, solar and battery storage to flourish, since these technologies deliver energy for much lower costs than gas or coal generation can provide. In fact, last year wind, solar and storage powered nearly a third of Texas' grid, keeping Texans’ electricity prices among the lowest in the nation.
Read the full article here.