Solar Surge: Texas Grid Roundup #88
ERCOT solar growth defies federal headwinds, cancellations climb amid policy uncertainty, and the Public Utility Commission of Texas taps the brakes on large-load interconnection reform.
In this edition:
The Fed Reports: Texas solar keeps booming despite tariffs and policy shifts.
ERCOT queue cancellations surge as policy and congestion pressures grow.
PUC slows large-load reforms while ERCOT sorts out the new batch process.
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“Utility-scale solar shines in Texas despite tariffs, federal policy changes”
That was the headline last week from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, which put out a powerful report showing that despite anti-energy policies and tariffs, “Texas managed to add just as much solar capacity in 2025 as it did in 2024, although many other states experienced a slowdown.”
The report went on to juxtapose projections of growing energy demand in ERCOT and elsewhere with the impact that anti-energy policies will have in meeting those needs. It also emphasized challenges that are constraining growth of other forms of energy. Those realities will continue to buoy solar development in Texas, despite efforts to sink it:
“... Nuclear power is experiencing a revival of interest but requires long lead times to bring new capacity online.
“Natural gas, abundant in the region, can provide reliable all-day baseload power, unlike solar power. However, the price of new natural gas turbines for power plants has increased considerably in recent years. Orders are also backlogged, limiting how much capacity can be added in the aggregate in the near term.
“Reflecting this environment, Texas is anticipated to add substantially more solar capacity than other forms of power in 2026, based on data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s monthly survey of generation capacity.”
And the report offered a dramatic snapshot of power sources that have come onto the Texas grid in recent years. The Dallas Fed article is yet another reminder that without renewables, Texas could never have
