If recent estimates and statistics prove to be correct, Texas is having a massive energy boom.

Unsurprisingly, it is oil production that is getting most of the attention. Oil production has grown 71 percent in the past two years, and Texas oil is seeing its highest output in over two decades. One economist predicts that production will continue to increase into 2013. There is more good news to accompany this production: wind and solar power are expected to make huge gains in Texas in the near future, turning the state into an even bigger renewable energy powerhouse.

The amount of solar power in Texas has doubled in the past two years, and the cost of solar power has declined about 25 percent. While solar power currently represents only 1 percent of Texas’ electricity generation, a study conducted by the Electricity Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) found that an estimated 10,000 MW of solar power could be produced in the next two decades, which is over 100 times the amount of solar power being generated right now.

The outlook for wind power in Texas is even more promising than solar power. In 2012, Texas led the United States with over 12,000 MW of installed wind capacity, more than double the amount of the next closest state. While there has typically been difficulty in delivering wind power across the country’s second largest state by area, this obstacle is already being addressed. A $6.95 billion transmission project, scheduled to be completed by the end of 2013, should be able to deliver up to 18,500 MW of wind power across the state. The system has a number of benefits, including allowing Texas’ population centers increased access to wind power, easing congestion on existing power lines, and employing workers to develop the project.

This growth in wind and solar power did not happen overnight; it has been the result of a steady progression in renewable energy utilization that traces its roots to before the new millennium. In 1999, former President George W. Bush, then the Governor of Texas, signed into law a Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) for Texas. It stipulated that Texas utilities were required to purchase 2,880 MW of new renewable energy capacity by 2009. It also set a target rate of renewable energy providing at least 20 percent of the state’s total electricity use by 2020.

The result of this law has been that Texas has created a huge market for renewable energy, and this market is only improving. In 2010, just 11 years following the RPS bill, Texas already had 9,000 MW of wind energy capacity installed. This rapid installation can also be attributed to the nature of Texas’ electricity grid system. Its grid is not connected to the rest of the national grid; instead, ERCOT acts as the regional operator and its 23 million customers use about 85 percent of the state’s electricity. This allows for more efficiency in electricity generation.

It must be noted that wind and solar power have a tough time competing with low natural gas prices, especially considering that in 2011 Texas accounted for 28 percent of U.S. marketed natural gas production. But another study conducted by ERCOT gives reason for optimism for wind and solar power: in applying wind and solar power characteristics like cost and actual output, over the next twenty years wind and solar power are predicted become more competitive than natural gas.

This is important for a number of reasons. We here at American Security Project believe that natural gas can play an important role as an energy supply while renewable forms of energy are continuing to be developed. The ERCOT study findings fit in perfectly with this thinking. Over time, wind and solar power in Texas could become as cost-effective as natural gas, allowing for a better economic incentive to use them. They are also already cleaner than natural gas (and oil) and better for the environment.

Another reason is that other U.S. states can follow Texas’ lead in promoting the use of renewable energy. A 2012 CNBC study found that Texas is the number one state in which to do business. By 2011 statistics, Texas would have the 14^th largest GDP in the world if it were its own country. Clearly its economic prowess is effective and it should be closely emulated. With its strong energy boom and continued investments in renewable energy, Texas will have the opportunity to both enhance its status as an economic power and serve as a model for successful and sustained renewable energy use.

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