AUSTIN – Bills moving through the Texas Legislature could pull the plug on existing and future renewable energy projects, according to some advocates.

House Bill 3356 and its companion Senate Bill 715 would require solar and wind farms in Texas to have a backup supply system that would run when the wind does not blow and the sun goes down.

FOX 7 Austin’s Rudy Koski spoke to energy expert Ed Hirsch from the University of Houston about the recurring fight over the best way to supply the state power grid.

Ed Hirsch: “It’s really too late for the legislature to push anything other than renewables at this point. The time to act was 2021.”

Rudy Koski: “If the gas turbine industry is going to be in trouble and delayed why hit the brakes on wind and solar now and put these extra restraints on?”

Hirsch: “That is the question. We’re in a catch-up mode and, unfortunately, we’re not going to be able to catch up. We don’t have enough natural gas, coal and nuclear power plants to cover the full demand on the Texas grid. In fact, today without wind and solar, we would be having rolling blackouts.”

Koski: “The bill does give an option and say, if you don’t put natural gas generator as a backup, have battery power as a backup. Why is that a bad idea? They’re going to be required to do that eventually.”

Hirsch: “We will get to the point where we have enough battery backup, but here’s nothing in the bill that requires natural gas generators to add battery backup. We need the manufacturers to scale up, to deliver them and the business and the industry is growing, but it’s not growing as fast as we need it to.” 

Koski: “Some officials from the renewable industry don’t like this idea of being mandated to have battery power, standby backup power now. And they’re saying that this is going to shut down all renewables in the state or a big chunk. Are they overselling? Are they just being Chicken Little?”

Hirsch: “It’s going to impose a greater cost that they will have to flow through to the customer. It will slow down the rate of adoption for renewables. I don’t think it’s as extreme as they say it’s going to be. But really we have to step back and look at this from a broader perspective. What is this going to do for the business environment for Texas if we’re restricting access to the grid? If we’re restricting the growth of power supply, this is going to keep businesses out of Texas.”

Koski: “The long-running argument against wind farms here in Texas has always been that it’s a blight on our beautiful landscape. These giant monsters that are spinning constantly and so there’s legislation in play that says anything that’s built offshore cannot plug in. Are we cutting our nose off to spite our face if we are in such a crisis right now that we’re just dooming ourselves to a blackout?”

Hirsch: “Yes, we are. I mean, that’s just a vanity argument. It makes no sense at all, but keep in mind we had offshore leases last year, or two years ago, nobody actually bid for them. Retiring the wind turbines is an extreme cost. Nobody knows how to take apart these indestructible turbine blades at the end of their useful lives. Solar farms are pretty easy. You just pick them up off the ground and cart them off. We have the largest renewable energy fleet in the nation, much larger than California and we need to expand this now.”