The Trump administration likes to cast renewables as a socialist scam, but solar has soared in the competitive markets of the Lone Star State.
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The Oberon solar farm in Ector County, Texas, contributes to the record solar generation now outpacing that from coal plants on the state’s grid. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
The Texas sun keeps rising, as Texas coal wanes.
For the first time ever, solar is set to generate more electricity than coal in the power market managed by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. Nobody is building new coal power plants in the state, but developers are adding more solar there than anywhere else in the country. As a result of those diverging trajectories, the federal government expects ERCOT will receive 78 billion kilowatt-hours from solar in 2026, and just 60 from coal.
