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Prior to Texas' February winter storm blackouts, the wind and solar energy industry spent approximately $66 billion, with $21.7 billion granted from local, state and federal subsidies, on renewable energy sources that some criticize as unreliable, according to Real Clear Energy.
Taxpayers ended up funding 33 cents per every dollar spent by Texas wind and solar companies, allowing the companies to receive a 32.9% discount on their purchases when compared to the rest of the market.
The report by Real Clear Energy stated that this financial data comes from a report by Texas Policy director at the Energy Alliance, Bill Peacock. Despite billions of dollars provided to Texas companies to build multiple renewable energy complexes, millions of citizens were left without power in February and 111 died during the winter storm, suggesting that the expensive subsidies are outdated and do not provide the additional power needed to maintain the grid.
“Beyond the weather, environmental policies that have been pushing renewable energy across the country and in Texas for a long time are largely keeping the Texas grid from providing reliable power,” Peacock said in a February article by the Lone Star Standard.
Real Clean Energy reports that Peacock said 79% of the state's electricity generation capacity built since 2018 is in the form of renewables, whereas 19% comes from “generation that can be dispatched, and all of that comes from one source, natural gas.”
“What's contributing is the fact that we're relying on wind and the turbines are frozen as well as the fact that we're relying on solar and there's no sun shining,” Peacock said, as reported by a second Lone Star Standard article. “We could have a reliable natural gas backup in place but we don't. All three of those are related to the renewable energy policies in Texas and in the United States.”
In 2020, renewable energy accounted for approximately 25% of distributed power, compared to approximately 46% for natural gas, according to ERCOT data.
With respect to frozen turbines, Texas wind turbines have not been "winterized" as they are most in colder climates, as authorities chose not to include winterization equipment based on the state's typically warm climate.
The Austin News reported that renewable energy has spent more than $71 million on lobbying in Texas alone over the last six years. This has allowed for renewable subsidies to expand throughout the state, making it easier for wind and solar to "outcompete" with other energy companies that do not receive the subsidies, presumably decreasing grid reliability.
"The lack of diversity that has resulted from this overreliance on renewables has come at a great cost to Texas. Wall Street bankers and investment firms have partnered up with renewable energy companies from all over the world to chase the billions of dollars available if the companies will pick this form of energy favored by politicians and bureaucrats across the globe—including the state of Texas," Peacock said, as reported by Real Clean Energy.
Peacock said the state needs to stop renewable energy subsidies and eliminate excessive regulation by the Texas Public Utility Commission in order to have a more reliable system.
Texas Oil and Gas companies are able to receive some of the same subsidies as wind and solar energy, but also pay approximately 54 times more in annual taxes, despite the energy they produce being more reliable in sustaining the grid.
Real Clean Energy reports that data from ERCOT shows that when energy demands in Texas increase, wind and energy output drops by approximately 32,000 megawatts, as the demand for power rises, the production of wind energy nearly dissipated completely.
As more wind and solar companies eye expanding operations in Texas (while taking advantage of federal, state and local tax breaks to do so), critics continue to point to the consequences of continuing to extend such lucrative subsidies and tax incentives to intermittent generators – an increasingly less reliable grid.