Earlier this spring an article was released announcing that Texas, the largest state in the contiguous United States, was harnessing one-third of the state’s total electricity through wind power. A record breaking 10,296 MW of electricity was collected by wind turbines, according to a report by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. That electricity provided almost 30% of the state’s power and is enough to light up over 5 million homes.
“Texas deregulated much later than Alberta did,” said Chris Vilcsak President and CEO of Solution 105. “If there is anywhere in the United States that would be the centre of their oil industry it would be Texas.”
Yet Texas, with fracking on the rise and having a reputation as the most ‘un-hippy’ oil-booming state, has taken huge strides towards investing and harvesting cleaner energy sources, becoming the 5th largest wind power producer in the world. Wind power is ideal for the Texas: with lots of open land and windy plains and a constantly growing population with high demands for electricity…sounds a lot like Alberta.
Wind energy is now a thriving industry with incredible economic and political power in Texas. It is providing work and profit for the state and regardless of other resources available in the state people are willing to fight for it. If Texas can get a third of its energy from the wind and still contribute to a thriving economy, why can’t Alberta?
“Government of Alberta…are you paying attention?” commented Vilcsak.
Read the original article One-Third of Texas Running on Wind Power.