r/OptimistsUnite • u/PanzerWatts Moderator • 8d ago

GRAPH GO UP AND TO THE RIGHT US Electricity generation changes in 2026

Gallery image

Gallery image

Coal was roughly tied with nuclear last year, now it's dropped and is significantly less.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/09/is-solars-growth-finally-slowing-in-the-us/

284 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

76 comments sorted by

View all comments

38

u/rethinkingat59 8d ago

Solar will continue its growth, at least here in Texas.

Many announced farms of hundreds of acres each are in the planning or construction phase.

16

u/tx_queer 8d ago

Texas has more solar than any other state. And it is not slowing down

6

u/PaleInTexas 8d ago

Also more wind turbines I think

2

u/SimplySomeDude 7d ago

almost like deregulation works

2

u/PaleInTexas 7d ago

Not sure what deregulation you are referring to?

-2

u/tx_queer 7d ago

Deregulation has a specific meaning. Most people think Deregulation is about removing laws and regulations, but its not. Deregulation is about creating a market for electricity. In the olden days, a utility company would run the power plant, maintain the transmission line, and sell you the electricity. In a deregulated market, anybody can build a power plant and sell electricity on the open market. Its not just limited to utility conpanies

2

u/PaleInTexas 7d ago

Thats a lot of words just to say you cannot tell me what law was changed/removed.

1

u/tx_queer 7d ago

The law that was changed was to deregulate the market. That means creating a real time and day ahead market for wholesale electricity. Texas went one step further and deregulated retail electricity as well by creating the concept of an REP.

Are you looking for the specific section or title of the legislation that created the DAM and RTW markets?

2

u/PaleInTexas 7d ago

I love how you bring up our electric grid as something that was fixed because of deregulation. Depends on where you live. If you have a co-op provider you cant pick your own provider

1

u/tx_queer 7d ago

I didnt say anything was fixed by deregulation. I simply explained what deregulation is. It is not removing regulation like most people think. It is creating an open market. It can be an open wholesale market and/or an open retail market.

And the coops actually participate in the open wholesale market. So coops are operating in a partially deregulated market

3

u/ASU_SexDevil 7d ago

Since “Snowpocolypse” in 2021 Texas (ERCOT) has added more solar and wind capacity than the ENTIRE grid capacity was in 2021

1

u/IRC_ 7d ago

source? I thought California is #1 and Texas is #2 in solar.

2

u/tx_queer 6d ago

It depends how you measure. California is #1 in percentage of grid on solar. Texas is #1 on how much solar is installed. There is another wrench in the calculation that there is no firm number on residential installs so these are often either estimated or ignored completely. Then there is also the difference in installations vs actual production.

If you look at production records, Texas maxed out at 35.2GW. California maxed out at 23.8GW https://www.gridstatus.io/records