Texas Town First Of Many To Switch To 100% Renewable Power
On March 18 the city of Georgetown, Texas announced that it would soon be generating 100 percent of its electricity from renewable sources.
Georgetown agreed to purchase the power from a 150-megawatt solar farm that is to be constructed by SunEdison and online in 2016. Coupled with a 2014 agreement to buy wind power, Georgetown will be able to generate all of its electricity needs without any help from coal, oil, natural gas, or nuclear power.
Texas, the largest oil producer in the United States, is not normally known for its green tendencies. But Georgetown will be the first of many cities in Texas and around the country that will increasingly turn to renewables for electricity. And that has less to do with environmentalism than it does with dollars and cents. Solar has seen its panel prices fall by more than 63 percent since 2010, with wind posting similar cost declines. As a result renewables are the fastest growing form of electricity.
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That is upending monopolies held by utilities, which are fighting back against insurgent solar and wind. Utilities are trying to block new entrants into the market, which has earned the solar and wind industry some new and unlikely allies. In North Carolina, for example, a Republican state representative issponsoring legislation that will open up the market for third party ownership and financing of solar, something that is currently illegal. Dubbed the “Energy Freedom Act,” the legislation could provide a dramatic boost to renewable energy in a state that has in the past banned state agencies from preparing for the threats of climate change.
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