The Texas power grid is being rebuilt in real time. Energy Capital covers the policy fights, market mechanics, and technical decisions shaping what comes next. Hosted by Josh Rhodes (UT Austin) and Matt Boms (TAEBA), with the policymakers, regulators, and researchers at the center of it. Produced by ClarityForge Studios.
Topics include ERCOT market operations, grid reliability, renewable integration, distributed energy resources, interconnection and transmission planning, regulatory economics, energy storage, demand response, and the Texas electricity market. New episodes weekly. on Texas energy and power grid issues, featuring interviews with energy professionals, academics, policymakers, and advocates. Produced by ClarityForge Studios.
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The federal 30% solar tax credit has driven demand for solar but it’s about to expire. And when it does, some worry the bottom will fall out of the market. But what’s actually emerging looks less like a collapse and more like a shift which could lead to bigger growth down the road. In this episode, Bret Biggart , CEO of Freedom Solar , offers a grounded look at how a major Texas-based installer is adapting in these uncertain times. Freedom Solar began in Austin and now operates across Texas, one...
Doug Lewin and Travis Kavulla delve into Texas's competitive energy landscape, highlighting the critical but underdeveloped demand side. They discuss how retailers like NRG, with their Vivint smart home integration, are leveraging technology to build virtual power plants and empower customers. The conversation also covers ERCOT's proposed residential demand response program, the challenges of winter risk, and the need for regulatory changes like performance-based regulation and reforming the 4CP transmission cost allocation to ensure a reliable, affordable, and equitable grid.
In Part 1 of my conversation with economist Lynne Kiesling, we traced how monopoly utilities and central planning helped electrify the country. That model worked. Economies of scale and guaranteed returns brought capital into the system, and within a few decades, nearly every home had electricity. But the world has changed. Technologies are smaller, decentralized, and more flexible. Risks are more complex. Consumers expect more than just “the light turns on.” In some areas, the old model now cre...
Over a hundred years ago, the monopoly business utility model emerged as the one that could attract sufficient capital to electrify everything. The monopoly utility business was championed by Thomas Edison’s protégé and early leader of ComEd in Chicago, Sam Insull. It worked. By mid-century, most Americans had power. But today, competition for generation and retail have shown that monopolies are not necessary. Texas is a poster child for for competition but even Texas has little competition on t...
This episode explores why utility bills are rapidly increasing, attributing the rise primarily to transmission and distribution infrastructure costs rather than renewable energy. Charles Hua from Powerlines discusses how the current regulatory system incentivizes capital spending over cost-effective operational solutions, leading to a disconnect between flat wholesale prices and soaring retail bills. The conversation highlights the urgent need for regulatory reforms like performance-based regulation, alongside short-term grid enhancements and greater consumer engagement, to balance essential grid investment with affordability.
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.texasenergyandpower.com This is my recent presentation on the latest trends in Texas energy and power for subscribers called the “ Texas Power Rush, ” followed by a Q&A.
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.texasenergyandpower.com San Antonio is one of the fastest growing cities in the country and have requests to interconnect AI infrastructure and data centers that would triple their size. With that growth comes a simple but daunting challenge: how do you keep the air conditioning on while growing the economy and keeping bills affordable? CPS Energy, the nation’s fifth largest municipally owned utility, sits at the center of this ch...
Sometimes I get to bring you a conversation that really feels like a turning point. This week, I sat down with Bill McKibben , one of the most respected voices in climate and energy. His new book, Here Comes the Sun (out today! order it here ), is different from his earlier work. Bill has long been known for sounding the alarm. But this time, he’s bringing something else: optimism. Why? Because solar and other clean technologies are no longer “someday.” They are scaling now — all around the worl...
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.texasenergyandpower.com 🎧 Listen to the first 15+ minutes for free, and if you’re a paid subscriber and want to listen in Apple Podcasts or Spotify, just connect your private Substack feed. Here is the a link with step-by-step instructions. You can also hear the full episode in Substack; just make sure you’re logged in with the email linked to your subscription. Texas’ retail electricity market was built to be a model for the wor...
In this week’s Energy Capital Podcast , I revisit my recent article, None of the Above , with added commentary. Please give it a listen and let me know what you think in the comments. All of the Above vs. None of the Above For years, U.S. energy policy has been framed as “all of the above.” No red or blue electrons, just building what works. The new budget bill flips that script and is leaving closer to none of the above. The administration’s preferred resources aren’t available at scale: * Nucl...
This podcast is on YouTube with Graphs Congress’ new budget bill is an energy earthquake. It could wipe out tens of gigawatts of energy production, just as we’re experiencing load growth unlike anything since the 1960’s. It will drive power bills higher for families and factories, and give China the upper hand in the race for 21st century economic supremacy. To understand in more detail the impacts of the federal budget bill, this week on the Energy Capital Podcast, I talked with Dan O’Brien , s...
In May 2016, a wildfire ripped through Fort McMurray, the heart of Canada’s tar sands and bitumen mining region, with a speed and intensity unlike anything firefighters had seen before. It created its own weather. And it triggered the largest evacuation in Canadian history, which had to happen within mere hours. But this fire wasn’t just a freak event. It was a warning of more to come. Since then, Texas experienced its biggest wildfire ever — the Smokehouse Creek Fire — in 2024. On the latest ep...
Either the Texas grid is highly reliable, or the sky is falling. Spoiler alert: bet against the latter. A June report from the Texas Reliability Entity (which has federal statutory responsibility to report on Texas’ grid risks) shows that the ERCOT grid is increasingly reliable. That’s mostly because of solar and battery storage additions to the state’s energy portfolio. It also directly contradicts a report from President Trump’s Department of Energy, released about a week later , which said Te...
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.texasenergyandpower.com In this episode of the Energy Capital Podcast , I sat down with Matt Loszak, co-founder and CEO of Aalo Atomics, a startup based in Austin, Texas, that’s reimagining how we build nuclear energy. 🎧 Listen to the first 15+ minutes for free, and if you’re a paid subscriber and want to listen in Apple Podcasts or Spotify, just connect your private Substack …...
We’re on the verge of one of the biggest energy shifts in decades: the increasing use of demand side resources. They’re often referred to as Virtual Power Plants, or VPPs. Add together thousands of rooftop solar installations and home batteries and you reach levels of power equal to medium sized power plants. They add power capacity, can provide key grid support in ancillary services, and give consumers uninterrupted power during outages of any kind. Unfortunately, the budget bill passed yesterd...
Anti-energy crusaders have a lot of facts wrong. I’ll break that down in this video. They’re also personally insulting the hard-working men and women in the renewable energy industry, calling solar jobs “fentanyl jobs.” They should apologize to the hard-working Americans helping to make our grid stronger every day. The ERCOT CEO told the Board earlier this week that solar and storage has strengthened our grid. Our risk of an energy emergency went from 16% one year to ago to 0.5% this year “becau...
This is the read-aloud version of my June 26 article, now on YouTube & the Energy Capital Podcast I don’t usually record readings of my articles, but I made an exception for this one. If Congress passes the budget bill as is, it would spike energy costs for families and businesses and cause serious economic harm. So I sat down and read the piece aloud with a few added thoughts and commentary as I went. Watch on YouTube Read the original article here What you’ll get in the episode: * Why “lev...
The U.S. was finally catching up. After decades of watching solar manufacturing develop overseas, mostly in China, the Inflation Reduction Act gave domestic producers a fighting chance. Texas responded in a big way. New factories broke ground. OCI and its sister company, Mission Solar, prepared to launch a full supply chain operation in San Antonio, including the rare addition of cell manufacturing, one of the most critical (and missing) links in our solar economy. Now? All of it hangs in the ba...
Texas is adding solar at a faster pace than any other state. Solar and storage are powering Texas’ manufacturing renaissance, creating jobs, and lowering customers’ bills; even the state’s oil and gas sector is an eager consumer of solar power . And renewables are also pumping tens of billions of dollars into local — mostly rural — economies in the form of landowner payments and tax payments. We’re on track to add another 8-10 gigawatts in 2025 , after adding about that much in 2024. In this wee...
On Wednesday, I published Energy Submission , a piece on how the U.S. is at risk of abandoning the battle for 21st economic supremacy as China accelerates its energy dominance. I recorded this podcast episode to go a little deeper into the consequences of the House-passed reconciliation bill and what we risk losing if we dismantle the tools driving the energy future. It’s available on YouTube with full charts and visuals Energy isn’t just one issue among many, it’s a foundational issue. In what ...
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.texasenergyandpower.com The Texas legislative session just wrapped. As always, energy was front and center. And once again, there were sweeping efforts to pass bills that would limit energy development in Texas. 🎧 Listen to the first 25+ minutes for free , and if you’re a paid subscriber and want to listen in Apple Podcasts or Spotify, just connect your private Substack feed. H…...
With just ten days left in the legislative session, a lot of attention is (rightfully) focused on bad bills. But some lawmakers are pushing forward thoughtful, future-focused energy policy and Chairman Drew Darby is at the forefront. For this episode, I sat down with Chairman Darby, a West Texas Republican and Chairman of the House Energy Resources Committee , to talk about what an energy-secure Texas really looks like and how we get there. We covered a wide range of topics: from his 50-year car...
AI data centers. Semiconductor fabs. Oil and gas electrification. Desalination. Rising population. Texas is booming and it needs massive amounts of electricity to fuel that growth. We’re already using more power than ever. ERCOT projects demand will grow by 60,000 megawatts in just five years . That would be like adding the current peak demand of California on top of Texas. But instead of clearing the path for new energy development, some would slow it down — and slow down the economy with it. T...
Note: The Podcast Recording with Graphs is Here . What would happen if Texas started turning away new wind and solar projects or even retiring some of the capacity we already have? That’s not merely a hypothetical. It’s what several bills that have passed the Texas Senate aim to do. And according to new modeling from Aurora Energy Research , the consequences could be severe: higher prices, increased risk of rolling outages, and weaker reliability at the very moment we need the grid to do more. I...
Texas has added more new power supply over the last four years than any other state and over 90% of it has been wind, solar, and storage. Today, renewable energy is no longer "alternative" in Texas. It is the backbone of our power grid. At this year’s Intersolar North America conference, I sat down with Nico Johnson , host of the excellent Suncast podcast, for a conversation about how the Texas energy market got here, where it’s headed, and what it means for the future of clean energy across the...
Large load growth is one of the most urgent challenges and opportunities for the grid. From data centers to factories to electrified oil and gas operations, demand on the ERCOT grid is expected to soar. If we don’t load forecasting and planning right, we risk higher costs, more outages, and a weaker grid. If we do it right, we can build a more resilient, affordable, and flexible system for decades to come. On this episode of the Energy Capital Podcast , I’m joined by Arushi Sharma Frank , energy...
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.texasenergyandpower.com Battery technology continues to improve and costs continue to drop, opening up new opportunities and reshaping the grid. And at a time of rapid load growth and massive constraints on natural gas turbine availability, storage is surging In this episode, I talk with Suzanne Leta, VP of Policy at Fluence, one of the world’s largest energy storage developers…...
Last year, ERCOT stunned observers when it projected that electricity demand in Texas could double within five years. That announcement kicked off a wave of meetings, legislative hearings, and proposals. But now? ERCOT’s latest projections say we might need to triple our electric supply. The Texas Energy and Power Newsletter is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a paid subscriber. The driver? A massive wave of industrial electrification an...
Everyone’s talking about the rise in electricity demand, especially from data centers. However, far too few are talking about what to do about it. In this episode of the Energy Capital Podcast, I sat down with Tyler Norris, a fellow at Duke University’s Nicholas Institute and co-author of a recent study Rethinking Load Growth . What Tyler and his team found is extraordinary: by curtailing just 0.25% to 1% of a data center’s annual load—primarily during the most stressed hours—Texas could add up ...
If it passed, Senate Bill 819 would be one of the most damaging energy bills we’ve seen in years. It would slow down Texas’ economy, hitting rural areas the hardest. It’s a direct attack on Texas energy producers and a threat to consumers, landowners, and communities across the state. But don’t take it from me, listen to the witnesses from Armstrong, Nacogdoches, Schleicher, and Tom Green Counties. Two weeks ago, the Senate Business & Commerce Committee held a public hearing on the bill. I’v...
