Darrell Proctor reports trhat an analysis by the University of Texas at Austin’s Energy Institute shows wind power generation capacity in Texas may already have surpassed coal-fired capacity in the state, and wind almost certainly will have leapfrogged coal by early next year, as wind farms continue to dot the landscape while more coal plants in the state are shuttered. The report from the Energy Institute comes on the heels of last week’s announcements of the closing of three large Vistra Energy coal plants in Texas—Big Brown, Sandow, and Monticello, operated by Vistra subsidiary Luminant. All three plants are set to close in early 2018.
Vistra said the plants no longer are economic to operate, noting they are “economically challenged in the competitive ERCOT [Electric Reliability Council of Texas] market.” The three plants represent a whopping 4.2 GW of coal-fired generation capacity. Vistra Energy President and CEO Curt Morgan in a statement said “the market’s unprecedented low power price environment has profoundly impacted [Vistra’s] operating revenues and no longer supports continued investment [in the coal plants].”
The Energy Institute in an October 13 release said “New coal retirements announced by Luminant means ERCOT will soon lose significant coal generation capacity. At the same time, wind capacity is expected to increase by nearly 4,000 [MW] by 2018, meaning wind capacity will soon exceed coal capacity in Texas. Given current capacity factors for the respective technologies, it’s conceivable that energy generation from wind could possibly overtake coal in the near future.”
Joshua Rhodes, a research fellow at the Energy Institute, told POWER on October 16 that wind capacity overtaking coal “may already have happened. By the end of 2018, wind may have as much as 10 gigawatts more generation capacity than coal in ERCOT.” Rhodes produced a graphic that shows wind capacity at 24,400 MW at year-end 2018, with coal at just 14,700 MW after planned retirements. Texas already leads the nation in wind generation capacity with more than 21,000 MW installed as of the second quarter 2017, according to the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA).
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