For a while it's seemed like Blue states, mainly California, are leading the charge in wind and solar energy. I was curious if this was just partisan noise, and fortunately the Energy Information Administration hosts a database containing utility-scale solar output for every state for the last several years.
I did some analytics and I was pretty shocked to see that Texas has nearly caught up with California over the last decade, despite Texas Republicans constantly bashing wind and solar for being unreliable and a needless tax burden.
I also built a custom growth metric to map out which states have the highest momentum in transitioning to a solar grid.
Full article here: https://samholmes285.substack.com/p/dont-say-climate-change
Source: holmess2013
3 Comments
States don’t build power plants or green alternatives. Power companies do.
I have commissioned gigawatts of wind power in Texas, Iowa, Oklahoma, etc. Not a single megawatt was built by the state it was in.
They aren’t doing it secretly. That was the whole point of the inflation reduction act, that most of the green subsidies would go to red areas, in hopes that they wouldn’t repeal it, though that didn’t work.
Most renewable projects are paid for by tech companies, they dont really care where they go.
Texas has been in first for awhile. It’s really windy and sunny, the grid is easy to hook up to, and permitting is easy. Source, I build renewable projects.