The Public Utility Commission of Texas will be required to conduct a study on how half of all electric generating capacity in Texas could be from renewable energy sources by 2030 and 100% by 2050, under a bill pre-filed by state Senator-elect César Blanco (D-El Paso).
“Not later than Dec. 31, 2022, the commission shall report the results of the study and any recommendations to the legislature,” the bill says. “The report must include any statutory changes necessary to implement the recommendations made in the report.”
According to a report by the Energy Alliance, a project of the Texas Business Coalition, wind and solar generators in Texas have received about $19.4 billion of subsidies from taxpayers and consumers since 2006.
This allows producers of renewable energy to "drastically lower their prices, even to the point of negative prices, in order to gain market share and ensure their eligibility for subsidies,” the report said.
Investors are flocking to renewable energy because of the subsidies, the report said. That includes the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which handles more than 80% of the electricity purchased in Texas, the report said.
“Thus most new generation coming online in ERCOT recently has been either wind or solar," said a summary of the report. "Because generation of electricity from wind and solar is inefficient and unreliable, this has led to significant concerns about the reliability of the electric grid in ERCOT."
Chinese investors are also getting in on the renewable energy act.
The proposed Blue Hills wind farm on the Crockett County/Val Verde County line is being “fronted” by GH America Energy, which is owned by Guanghui Energy Co., which is part of the Xinjiang Guanghui Industry Investment Group in Xinjiang, an autonomous region in China, Reform Austin reported.
Sun Guangxin, a former member of the People’s Liberation Army, currently worth an estimated $1.9 billion, is behind the companies, the story said.
The proposed wind farm is raising security and safety concerns because it would be near the flight path of Laughlin Air Force Base, a training facility for U.S. military pilots, the story said.
“You’ve got environmentalists, you got ranchers, you have everybody that sort of would be at odds with each other on different sides of the aisle, we’re all on one side now,” Val Verde County Judge Lewis G. Owens Jr. told Reform Austin. “And then you’ve got the wind farm on the other side.”
