The Future Is Brighter in Texas
Texas isn’t just leading the energy conversation — it’s rewriting the entire playbook. As the leading wind producer and ascending solar powerhouse, Texas is leveraging its vast natural resources and taking advantage of its standing as a deregulated market to fuel over thousands of clean energy jobs, attract billions in private investment, and slash emissions — all while powering millions of homes with cost-effective energy.
In 2024, wind and solar energy provided 30 percent of power in Texas, and on one particularly windy and sunny day in early March 2025, renewables met 76 percent of demand on the state’s ERCOT power grid. To fill the weather gaps, industrial batteries have scaled up, now producing as much power as the state’s nuclear plants.
That progress is at risk.
In March, the Texas Senate passed SB388. Initially, the bill required half of new installed capacity to be from natural gas starting in 2026. A recent amendment softened the language from “natural gas" to “dispatchable generation other than battery energy storage.”
The timing is far from ideal.
With the rise of data centers, artificial intelligence, and crypto mining, load on the ERCOT grid is expected to double by 2030, and this rapid increase in demand poses real world questions with regard to gas power plants.
Depending on the size and complexity, a combined-cycle gas plant will take 2-3 years to come online, as its components are more specialized, leaving it more vulnerable to supply chain issues during the construction phase. Conversely, solar components and batteries are simpler to build and can be mass produced, enabling their installation and deployment in 12-18 months.
Further, the tumbling price of solar energy makes it more attractive to operators. Last summer, when multiple daily load records were broken on the ERCOT grid, solar met the high demand during the intense Texas midday heat, yet still allowed wholesale prices to remain low.
The risks with this bill include slower deployment of critical energy resources, a correlated economic slowdown, and questions about reliability over the next several years.
Much has to happen with SB388 after its 18-13 passage in the Texas Senate. It still needs to pass the Texas House of Representatives, which has recently been seen as the more moderate of the two legislative houses. However, there are more than two dozen new members in the Texas House this session, so precisely how this will play out is yet to be determined. Either way, we should get some answers before the start of summer, as the legislative session ends on June 2. From the executive branch, Governor Abbott has not publicly indicated a position on the bill.
These new uncertainties, in Texas and beyond, are issues we continue to watch very closely at Silverline — on top of the changing policy dynamics that are coming out of Washington. We continue to keep our clients and partners ahead in this new environment, delivering solutions to move their markets, and all of us, forward.
