After Blackouts, Texas Became a Top State for New Solar Installations as Thousands Install Microgrids

"Thousands of Texans who have turned to solar power and battery storage, creating so-called microgrids, as a solution to blackouts," reports the Houston Chronicle. "With a venture creating the same little power plants for apartment buildings, Texas has become a national leader in residential solar power installations."From 2019 to 2020, small-scale solar capacity in Texas grew by 63 percent, to 1,093 megawatts from 670 megawatts, according to the Energy Information Administration. In the first three quarters of 2021, another 250 megawatts of residential solar were installed in the state, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association. In last year's third quarter alone, Texas ranked second behind California in the amount of power from new installations during the period, the industry's Washington, D.C. trade group said. Surging demand for residential solar power in Texas after the February 2021 freeze put pressure on installers to keep up, said Abigail Hopper, president and CEO of the association. The race to buy new rooftop panels has slowed some, she said, but Texas remains among the top three states for new installations. And the shrinking price of solar cells will help support its growing popularity, Hopper said. "I think as more and more Americans really struggle with the impact of severe weather - everything from fires, the cold, hurricanes, droughts - and see the impacts on power and power outages, you're going to continue to see folks looking for resiliency," Hopper said.

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