On Tuesday, south Texas set records for high temperatures. In many areas, this was not just a high-temperature record for the day, but an all-time record for any date before July. Add in extremely high levels of humidity, and Texas—along with a big chunk of the south and central U.S.—is suffering from a heat wave that’s bringing literally killer heat indexes to a broad area. It’s another example of the kind of extreme weather that is becoming more and more frequent as the world warms due to the human-induced climate crisis.
But there’s one thing Texas isn’t suffering: Power outages. That’s because, as CNN reports, Texas is being saved by the two most reliable forms of power in the state—wind and solar.
Even though the extreme heat and humidity caused Texans to crank up their air conditioners, bringing the electricity demand to a record 75 gigawatts on Sunday and Tuesday, which “smashed” the previous record, the state is not suffering widespread blackouts or brownouts. That’s because wind and solar kicked out 27 gigawatts of electricity on those dates. This not only kept Texas air conditioners humming, but it also saved Texas consumers literally billions of dollars.
