Solar Topped Coal in Texas for the First Time Ever in March

[Think. Again.]

Michelle Lewis, Apr 5 2024 - 11:51 am PT
Full Article: https://electrek.co/2024/04/05/solar-topped-coal-in-texas-for-the-first-time-ever-in-march/

Solar topped coal’s output in Texas for the first time in any month, sending 3.26 million megawatt-hours (MWh) onto the grid vs. coal’s 2.96 million MWh in March.

-snip-



Coal’s decline in Texas is a big deal because the Lone Star State has long been the No 1 user of coal for power generation in the US. It burned twice as much as second-place Missouri in 2023 and 13% of the US total.

At the national level, in a first, EIA grid monitor data reflects that coal’s share of national electric generation was less than 15% every day in March. Coal’s national market share also hit a daily record low on March 29, dropping to just 11.25%.

Coal’s poor March performance is notable because, in recent years, it’s been April and May when its national market share has been at its lowest. IEEFA researchers say it’s “entirely possible that it could fall into the single digits on some days this spring.”

[calimary]

1. This is good to see. Encouraging.

[OnlinePoker]

2. On the bottom of the actual report, there's this great graphic for the U.S. as a whole.

https://ieefa.org/resources/texas-marks-milestone-road-greener-grid-solar-tops-coal-march

[NickB79]

3. I wonder what a chart with natural gas consumption overlaid would look like?

I found this chart from the EIA that goes to 2022. Looks like natural gas use is almost entirely replacing coal, while wind and solar are covering new demand.

If I were optimistic I'd say trading coal for gas is better than nothing, but then I'd remember all the methane leaks that make natural gas as bad as coal.

https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/images/2021.04.21/chart2.svg