Blown Away: Wind Power Keeps Growing in Texas

November 17, 2009, 12:59 PM ET.

http://blogs.wsj.com/environmentalcapital/2009/11/17/blown-away-wind-power-keeps-growing-in-texas/

By Russell Gold, Wall Street Journal Blogs

Can the U.S. produce 20% of its electricity from wind? The U.S. Department of Energy thinks it can get there by 2030.

That doesn’t sound so far fetched anymore. A couple weeks ago – October 28th to be exact – wind turbines provided about 25% of Texas’ power consumption. (See the second page of the Texas electric authority ERCOT CEO’s update here.)

Of course, that could have been in the middle of the night when the good people of Flatonia, Amarillo and Gun Barrel City – not to mention Houston and Dallas – were asleep. (Update: It was in the middle of the night. Three a.m. to be exact.) Spain topped out at 53% of grid electricity from the wind earlier this month, but that occurred at about 5 a.m. while most Spaniards were asleep.

But back in Texas, a little before 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday October 28th, the Lone Star State got about 6,223 megawatts from the wind. That’s a record. At the time, the total load was about 35,000 megawatts. That’s 17.8% of its power from the wind. (That’s not sleepy-time power usage. Texas power consumption peaked in October at 49,100 megawatts.)

What does this mean for Texans electric bills? They could be headed down. A recent report finds that wind power is replacing more expensive forms of power generation.

This article brought to you by the Indiana Renewable Energy Association.