Texas has long been a leader in the deployment of solar and wind, though conflicted about it. Power outages in Texas are often attributed to wind and solar, with the sage observation that the wind doesn't always blow and the sun doesn't always shine. With the Texas grid mostly isolated from the rest of the US, gaps in generation mostly cannot be ameliorated by importing power from elsewhere.
For example a few months after the February 2021 extended winter power outage in Texas, FERC reported that, "Natural gas-fired units represented 58 percent of all generating units experiencing unplanned outages, derates or failures to start. The remaining portion was comprised of wind (27 percent), coal (6 percent), solar (2 percent) and other generation types (7 percent), with four nuclear units making up less than 1 percent."
But during the outage the administration in Texas called out Wind as the primary culprit. Later corrections never achieve the same reach as the initial blame does.
Yet nonetheless, in 2026 Texas has reached several big milestones in its conversion to renewable power. This is amazing, commendable news.
Recent Milestone #1: Solar Surpasses Coal
In a report published on May 13, 2026, the US Energy Information Administration said, "In our most recent Short-Term Energy Outlook, we forecast that annual electric power generation from utility-scale solar will surpass that from coal for the first time in 2026 within the electricity grid that covers most of Texas."
So far, solar is not displacing coal so much as it is shutting out coal from new capacity being built. This is almost guaranteed at this point: not only does solar have no fuel cost, it is cheaper per Megawatt to build. It is difficult for coal to compete with a technology which is both less expensive to operate and less expensive to deploy.
Unfortunately though, as shown in the chart, electricity from methane (I decline to use the term natural gas) is also growing strongly.
Recent Milestone #2: Texas Battery Capacity Surpassed California
In the longer term, the most pivotal technology deployment isn't the megawatts of capacity of wind or solar generation, it is the megawatt-hours of battery storage deployed. Grid-scale batteries are how renewable power can address "the sun doesn't always shine." argument often advanced in favor of fossil generation. For example the Heritage Foundation in April 2025 called for policies to discourage deployment of renewables and battery storage in favor of fossil sources.
At some point in the last several months, Texas passed California in total battery capacity deployed. This is a big milestone, and a wonderful accomplishment.
Some day soon I hope to write about renewable generation in Texas passing Methane. It is, at this point, inevitable.
