On a blustery and brilliantly sunny Texas winter day a couple hundred Central Texas citizens, that included officials and solar enthusiasts, gathered on what had been an empty 380 acre field only three years ago to usher in a new era of “drought-proof” energy for the City of Austin. On Friday, January 6, 2012, Austin [...]
Posts Tagged ‘solar power’
Austin Energy drought proofs its energy with new Webberville Solar Project
Posted in Global Warming, Renewables, solar, tagged Austin Energy, Renewables, solar power, Webberville solar project on January 6, 2012 | 5 Comments »
San Antonio’s Solar Dream Deferred
Posted in Global Warming, tagged Energy, San Antonio, solar power, Texas on November 7, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
San Antonio’s dreams of becoming a solar manufacturing hub have been deferred temporarily. CPS Energy, the city’s municipally owned utility, couldn’t come to agreement with two unnamed finalists and will restart a bidding process that would put San Antonio into the top tier of solar users around the globe by seeking bids for 400 megawatts of solar power, enough to [...]
Deregulation has put Texas energy security at risk.
Posted in Air Quality, Coal, Energy, Global Warming, Renewables, Texas Legislature, tagged deregulation, Energy, Public utilities commission, Rolling blackout, solar power, Texas, wind power on August 5, 2011 | 2 Comments »
The PUC wants to have a meeting at the end of August to try to figure out how to fix Texas’s experiment of a deregulated generation market, as we look like we are going to run out of energy during what could be ever increasing hot summers. It seems the current market based behavior doesn’t [...]
A dream deferred
Posted in Global Warming, tagged Energy, renewable, solar power, Texas on July 7, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
The Southwestern U.S. has dominated the world of utility-scale solar projects over the past few years, with news of deals being signed for solar-power plants as large as 1 gigawatt or more. But now the Southeastern U.S. looks like it will soon be home to one of the world’s largest solar projects, a 400-megawatt photovoltaic [...]
Renewable Energy and the 82nd Legislature
Posted in Renewables, solar, tagged austin texas, solar energy, solar power, Texas on June 6, 2011 | 1 Comment »
If you live in Austin, TX and put solar on your rooftop, you might be able to pay only about a quarter of the initial cost estimate, making this a viable option for many homeowners. But for many Texans, there is still a good reason not to go with solar: the generous local incentives that Austinites [...]
Wind and solar may be competitive with coal without aid in a decade, Chu says
Posted in Global Warming, Renewables, tagged Coal, Energy, solar power, United States Secretary of Energy, wind on March 26, 2011 | 1 Comment »
According to Bloomberg, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu is calling for a national energy policy that will promote the use of clean-energy technologies. This would include U.S. investment in advanced battery technologies, biofuels and efficient high-voltage transmission systems. Secretary Chu went on to say they are expecting wind and solar power may be able to [...]
Got Solar?
Posted in Energy, Renewables, solar, tagged Electricity generation, Energy, renewable, solar power on March 7, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
For many who want to add more rooftop and other on-site solar generating devices on homes and even commercial properties, there have been concerns about the prospect of being regulated as utilities. This concern has been seen as an overly burdensome barrier to the industry, however Senator John Carona (R-Dallas) filed legislation that would make clear that [...]
San Antonio Tying Renewable Energy to the Growth of Their Economy
Posted in Energy, green jobs, Renewables, solar, tagged CPS Energy, Energy, renewable, San Antonio, solar power, sustainable energy, Texas on January 19, 2011 | 1 Comment »
CPS Energy CEO Doyle Beneby announced that the utility will acquire an additional 50 megawatts of solar power and that the company chosen to build the new plants for it will be required to locate a portion of its business in San Antonio. Currently the negotiations include a leading solar manufacturer to locate a small office [...]
Texas, home to Big Oil, takes shine to solar power… or does it?
Posted in Energy, solar, Texas Legislature, tagged Ken Anderson, non wind rps, public utility commission, renewable energy, rps, solar power, Texas, Texas Legislature on December 22, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Reuters carried a good story with this headline Texas, home to Big Oil takes a shine to solar power that describes the solar potential that exists, along with industry involvement and how it could be expanded here if we could just develop some statewide policy that supports it. Too bad the commissioners at the Texas [...]
CPS Energy adds another 30 MW of Solar to its generation mix
Posted in Energy, Global Warming, Renewables, solar, tagged CPS Energy, Energy, renewable, renewable energy, San Antonio, solar power, SunEdison on October 9, 2010 | 2 Comments »
CPS Energy in San Antonio continues to move forward with its renewable plans under Mayor Julian Castro. A major new solar announcement, just as its 14 MW solar system is getting finished, is good news indeed. San Antonio has been a leader in wind energy and now leads the state in solar, where is the [...]
Fed’s getting into the energy storage act, along with the TCEQ ?
Posted in Efficiency, Energy, natural gas, Renewables, tagged compressed air energy storage, Energy, Energy Efficiency, energy storage, flywheel energy storage, public citizen texas, renewable energy, Renewables, solar power, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality on August 28, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Long thought to be the last commodity that can’t be saved for later use, large scale electrical energy storage is finally looking like a technology who’s time might have come. Recently introduced the “Storage Technology of Renewable and Green Energy Act of 2010″ Act (S. 3617) introduced by U.S. Senators Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), Ron Wyden [...]
TCEQ Decides That Regulating Pollution Isn’t Their Job
Posted in Air Quality, Global Warming, Good Government, TCEQ, Toxics, tagged Air Quality, Carbon Dioxide, climate change, Environmental Protection Agency, Global Warming, public citizen texas, solar power on July 1, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Yesterday the TCEQ remanded the air permit for the proposed Las Brisas petroleum-coke plant back to the State Office of Administrative Hearings. What they didn’t do is require the facility to do what’s called a case-by-case analysis of MACT (Maximum Achievable Control Technology) for Hazardous Air Pollutants. In effect, TCEQ (the agency tasked with protecting [...]
Anchia and Johnson: A challenge to build on solar idea
Posted in Energy, solar, tagged 82nd legislature, carrollton, dallas, democrats, distributed energy, energy future holdings, environment texas, farmers branch, females, green jobs, hispanics, incentives, irving, jobs, legislator of the year, males, manufacturing, market development, mccall johnson, oncor, Public Citizen, public utility commission, PUC, rafael anchia, republicans, retail electric providers, silicon, solar, solar power, solarcity, TXU on March 12, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Great joint op-ed by our friend McCall Johnson over at Environment Texas and State Rep. Rafael Anchia, winner of Public Citizen’s Legislator of the Year award. Following on the heels of TXU’s announcement last week that it will offer customers an affordable solar leasing program, the gist of it is that we can’t let the [...]
Year in Review: Solar Power
Posted in Renewables, solar, tagged Austin, City Council, environment texas, mic sol-o, Public Citizen, Sierra Club, solar, solar plant, solar power, texas solar roadmap, Webberville, wildcatting the sun on January 6, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Part 4. Sunny With a Chance of Economic Development: Solar Potential, the Solar Session that wasn’t, and City of Austin Solar Plant Last spring, our minds were budding with thoughts of birds, bees, and… Texas’ solar potential (didn’t you know, a robust solar program would put Texans back to work and position the state as [...]
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