"The Texas Senate passed a bill Thursday that leading business interests fear would lead to an age of expensive power and rolling blackouts.
If passed by the House, state S.B. 715 would require all renewable projects — even existing ones — to buy backup power, largely from coal or gas plants.
This would require solar plants in particular to buy backup power to “match their output at night — a time when no one expects them to produce energy and when demand is typically at its lowest anyway,” consultant and energy expert Doug Lewin wrote in an April analysis"
You don’t understand Texas’s powergrid. It’s a free market, there is little planning or foresight. Large scale power production is provided by hundreds, possibly thousands, of independent producers who can turn their production on as they see fit, in other words, when it’s profitable. Therefore backup generation for solar is already present. If there’s not enough, then the market will dictate how much to build and where. That’s how it works in Texas.
Free market, they can deal with it. Yes, it’s a dumb system, but thems the rules in Texas.
This bill is clearly designed to stifle renewable production in favor of fossil energy. Requiring one mode of production to have or purchase backup generation isn’t fair in the current market system. Do away with the market system first before putting a thumb on the scale.
Also preferred energy types? Energy types with the least amount of emissions should be preferred. Not gas, not coal, not oil, or whatever else Texas wants to burn.