The group Conservative Texans for Energy Innovation this week highlighted updates to a 2022 report – “The Impact of Renewables in ERCOT” – showing that the availability of wind and solar power in the state’s energy market saved Texas ratepayers over $11 billion in 2022.
The original October 2022 report by Joshua Rhodes of Ideasmiths, quantified the impact of renewables in ERCOT on wholesale clearing prices and avoided fuel costs, water use, and emissions by comparing how the market would have performed with and without wind and solar from 2010 to August 2022. The new economic data updates the report with cost savings for the full 12 months of 2022, according to a memo from Rhodes to Conservative Texans for Energy Innovation’s state director Matt Welch.
The analysis indicates that the widespread adoption of renewables reduced wholesale electricity costs by about $31.5 billion between 2010 and 2022, saving consumers significantly from what they might otherwise have had to pay.
“There are powerful utility monopolies that don’t want you to see this information or know the true value of renewables in the Texas energy market. It’s easier for them to denigrate wind and solar power if you are misled into believing these sources of energy don’t work or don’t contribute much. Nothing could be further from the truth,” CTEI said in an email announcing the updated 2022 numbers.