Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Stunning Texas Gas & Electricity Summer Facts: Making Solar A Bargain

Record high temperatures in Texas this summer produced incredible demand and prices in energy markets there.  Just consider these electricity and gas facts.

Electricity prices regularly during afternoon hours were above 100 cents per kilowatt-hour and reached 300 cents per kilowatt-hour, making payback periods for solar systems much shorter than if prices were in the 10 to 15 cents range.  An air conditioned home easily consumes 50, 100, or more kilowatt-hours on a 100 plus degree day.  Paying $1 or $3 per kilowatt-hour produces astronomical power bills and makes solar systems a bargain by comparison.

And what produced most of Texas' electricity?  Gas-fired power plants.

Gas demand at just Texas power plants in two sweltering days in August hit 7 billion cubic feet per day, a number that is greater than 10% of total national gas demand on an average day, according to Gas Business Briefing.  Once the 115 degree heat ended, power plant gas demand declined to 4.6 billion cubic feet per day in mid-september and then to 3.7 billion cubic feet per day on September 21st.

Governor Perry actually accepts that the average temperatures in Texas are up 2 degrees since 1970 but descends into climate conspirarcy theories to push away the cause being rising concentrations of heat trapping gas. But the reality of rising temperatures are changing the energy demands and prices of Texas. They also are good for the gas and solar businesses there.

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