ERCOT

French oil major TotalEnergies and German-owned renewables developer RWE have announced plans for five large-scale batteries in the US state.

For renewable energy developers, finding a site in Texas can feel like searching for a needle in a haystack due to grid constraints, environmental concerns, and other factors. Help is now available, as Sultan Ennab, of Electric Power Engineers (EPE), explains, with reference to the Energy Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) grid.

Substantial cost and time savings are possible with flexible “connect and manage” interconnection of utility-scale solar and solar-plus-storage projects, two studies have found.

Company draws on oil and gas drilling tech to get renewable energy from dry rock formations.

In a new weekly update for pv magazine, Solcast, a DNV company, reports that the Tropical Storm Beryl caused a large but temporary dip in solar generation potential across Texas on July 8. However, cross-referencing with grid operator reports revealed that very little production went offline due to the storm, showing the resilience of Texas’ solar infrastructure.

Some experts shared data to back up their praise for the “connect and manage” approach used by Texas grid operator ERCOT, while others speaking on an industry panel explained their reservations.

Texas is uniquely suited to adopt virtual power plant technology due to its competitive, deregulated market. Its success highlights the “perverse incentive” of vertically integrated utilities in other states to make capital expenditures without discretion to raise profits.

To help manage battery storage and renewable energy assets, Habitat Energy signed an agreement with UBS Asset Management’s Real Estate & Private Markets business to optimize battery storage assets in four standalone projects in Texas.

The top state for solar deployment in 2023 is seeing tangible changes to its daily electricity supply, lowering the need for natural gas peaker plants, said the Energy Information Administration.

Solar, wind and battery storage accounted for nearly 95% of the capacity in transmission interconnection queues as of year-end 2023, based on preliminary data from Berkeley Lab, presented in a staff report from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.