Entergy Texas announced the opening of the Umbriel Solar facility, a contracted location selected through a request for proposals specifically for renewables. The Polk County location is owned and operated by Longroad Energy. 

The Umbriel Solar facility is Entergy Texas’ first contracted solar facility. "We are leading the way for adding more low-emission and carbon-free resources to the generation mix here in Southeast Texas,” said Abigail Weaver, Entergy Texas director of resource planning and market operations. 

Entergy's solar facility is just one of many that is contributing the Texas grid in recent years. Texas is a leader in new solar generation, leading the nation with 17.316 gigawatts of solar in development--one-fifth of all planned solar in the country, according to an S&P Global article.

The growth of solar is causing reliability problems in Texas. One of the problems is known as the "duck curve," which is when solar generation drops off rapidly as the sun sets on hot summer evenings from 6-8 p.m while the temperature and demand is still high. This problem is increasing in Texas.

The unreliability of solar forced ERCOT, the Texas grid operator, to declare its first Energy Emergency Alert 2 on September 6 last year since Winter Storm Uri. That evening, solar generation dropped by more than double the amount demand had dropped in the early evening, forcing ERCOT to call on natural gas plants to make up the difference, Master Resource reported.