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Deregulated energy markets accelerate solar adoption

(seanobannon.substack.com)
71 points seanobannon | 1 comments | 24 Mar 25 16:05 UTC | HN request time: 0.213s | source
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buckle8017 ◴[24 Mar 25 17:02 UTC] No.43463122[source]▶
The Texas grid was deregulated in an era where solar and wind were not price competitive.

The price competitive producers were all stable fossil fuels, natural gas and coal.

They failed to take into account unreliable low cost producers forcing reliable but marginally more expensive producers out of the market.

If solar/wind producers had to guarantee power 24x7 at fixed rates the cost would vastly exceed natural gas costs.

They just need to change the contract requirements to match reality.

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1. epistasis ◴[24 Mar 25 17:43 UTC] No.43463547[source]▶
> If solar/wind producers had to guarantee power 24x7 at fixed rates the cost would vastly exceed natural gas costs.

I think Texas' market right now is completely disproving that point. The amount of batteries being deployed everywhere are showing that storing solar/wind for a fraction of the day is going to be a lot cheaper than having tons of gas.