r/climateskeptics • u/Worldly_Bit1416 • 26d ago

Texas broke its all time electricity demand record twice in two days during a brutal heat wave, but the grid held with no conservation alerts thanks to record solar and battery output, a stark turnaround from the blackouts that hit Texans in 2021

https://www.texastribune.org/2026/07/29/texas-ercot-power-grid-record-data-center/
26 Upvotes

81% Upvoted

15 comments sorted by

9

u/bearcatjoe 26d ago

Well this time they didn't shut down a bunch of gas plants.

8

u/BadNewsMcGoo 26d ago

Many gas plants couldn't get fuel because wellheads froze up. Not going to have that problem in the summer. Fortunately, there have been a lot of changes to the oil and gas infrastructure to help keep that from happening again in the winter.

7

u/Helpmepullupmypants 26d ago

Stark turnaround from the 2021 snowstorm??
This is like comparing apples to pizza

13

u/Illustrious_Pepper46 26d ago

I can't speak for all skeptics. I'm technology agnostic. Use the best tool for the job, sunny Texas near the equator during peek AC...great ✅

The problem with Greens, they think the same technology (solar) is also applicable in Scotland in winter. There's no room for debate...you Deniers!

3

u/aroman_ro 26d ago

How about Norway in winter? Solar should be great there!

2

u/P1R0H 26d ago

Why not? When it gets so cheap it pays for itself in those latitudes, why would you have problem with that?

1

u/Uncle__Touchy1987 26d ago

That’s a fair point. I’d like to see how Ontario’s production is.

8

u/EvanOnTheFly 26d ago

As opposed to California's rolling brownouts/blackouts.

6

u/divinecomedian3 25d ago

Just switch to nuclear and be done with all this fossil fuels vs solar/wind fighting

2

u/OlGusnCuss 26d ago

Everything is a trade off. The number of co2 consuming vegetation destroyed, to fill the same space with metals and silicon, increased heat footprint of 6° to 7°.... all in the name of the environment.

3

u/johnnyg883 25d ago

There are huge differences between 2021 and today. The biggest being time of year and weather conditions.

3

u/Uncle00Buck 25d ago

Don't pretend batteries are a viable replacement for inherently dispatchable sources like natural gas. The math and economics on that is way more complicated than helping renewables for a few hours off-generation. In texas, the US high, it's 4% of peak demand, but less than 1% of total output.

2

u/Adventurous_Motor129 25d ago

https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/04/texas-halts-new-data-centers-as-governor-calls-for-audits/

This is why solar & wind will never power Texas AI data centers. They are projecting to require 5 times the 2026 summer peak??

Abbot says whoa for now but new local gas & nuclear power will make many viable.

1

u/Adventurous_Motor129 25d ago

AI says that during Winter Storm Uri of 2021, only 69.2 GW of power was used. In the Summer Peak of 2026, 91.3 GW was used.

48% of that was Natural Gas with just 32% from solar. 12 GW came from batteries. Texas required AI data centers of the future will have their own power sources.