"The Texas Senate passed a bill Thursday that leading business interests fear would lead to an age of expensive power and rolling blackouts.
If passed by the House, state S.B. 715 would require all renewable projects — even existing ones — to buy backup power, largely from coal or gas plants.
This would require solar plants in particular to buy backup power to “match their output at night — a time when no one expects them to produce energy and when demand is typically at its lowest anyway,” consultant and energy expert Doug Lewin wrote in an April analysis"
No batteries don’t count.
"The Texas Senate on Wednesday passed a bill to create a new “dispatchable” power credits trading program that would effectively require utilities, generation companies and electric cooperatives in Electric Reliability Council of Texas territory to offset new renewables and battery capacity — with an equal amount of new dispatchable capacity beginning as early as next year.
The bill’s definition of “dispatchable” excludes batteries while also exempting power generation companies that exclusively operate battery energy storage systems from the dispatchable power generation requirement."
https://www.utilitydive.com/news/texas-senate-bill-dispatchable-power-credits-trading/743185/
If this passes the solar companies should close up shop and abandon Texas. Head for a state with as much sun but less stupid.
Leave the assholes to their fate.
I imagine that’s the goal
At first I thought, this isn’t toooooo terrible as making batteries to store any excess would actually be great, although there could be situations where you don’t need excess due to excess baseload already…
This is just bonkers though. Wow.