Everything is Bigger in Texas!

Well, almost everything. RE+ Events boasted that they gathered over 2,000 energy professionals for their RE+ Texas event earlier this month in Houston. For attendance at regional shows, this puts RE+ Texas just behind RE+ Northeast, which is pretty impressive for a renewable energy conference focused on a single US state.

I’ve been attending the Texas event since RE+ launched it in San Antonio in 2016. Over time, I’ve seen lots of fluctuations in this market, and, judging from this recent event in Houston, indications point to a downward trend. For one, I believe attendance was lower than in past years. We should have the official report from RE+ shortly, but they list 2,300 attendees in 2024. And, unfortunately, the dip in attendance is not unique to RE+ Texas or to RE+ events, but it seems to be true with all renewable energy focused conferences in the year to date. Lower conference attendance is an obvious key indicator.

The optimism that once shined upon our industry seems to be overshadowed by the dark cloud of import tariffs, the elimination of tax credits, and general uncertainty with the Trump Administration. Investments are down and hiring has slowed. Rather than roadmapping hiring for each quarter (as typical), most companies I spoke to in Houston are adopting the wait-and-see approach. This uncertainty is not good for the entire US economy or the health of our labor markets, never mind renewable energy at the state level.

Unsurprisingly, with its oil and gas sector, Texas leads the nation in jobs across the energy industry. And, as of recent, it has the most utility-scale solar installations in the US, with 40,000MW installed, and has become a power house in solar investment ($50B). Texas is also second in job creation (behind California) in renewable energy, energy efficiency, solar energy and energy storage employment.

With all this solar growth across Texas, it’s also becoming a leader in solar equipment manufacturing with over 100 production lines in the state. I was lucky enough to get a tour of the SEG Solar module plant in Houston which pumps out 4,000 modules (with the ability to ramp to 6,000) per day! Once you see the amount of steps involved to produce one single solar module, you can’t unsee it. Truly unbelievable!

Will Renewable Energy Still Be Bigger in Texas?

Not only is Texas facing federal headwinds alongside the rest of our industry, it’s also confronting opposition from the state legislature. Senate Bill 6 was approved by the House on Tuesday, and it would increase state oversight of the major commercial and industrial energy consumers in Texas. The bill also would allow ERCOT (the only system operator in town!) to oversee all transactions between independent power generators and large consumers of electricity. Even though ERCOT itself is a regulated market, the retail electricity market in Texas is deregulated, so this bill truly puts that status at risk. The ruling would also give ERCOT permission to cut the power for those who signed independent purchase contracts from wind, solar, and storage providers, and use the power during emergencies.

This bill alone will deter some businesses from operating in Texas, but there’s more! HB 3228 has passed the House and Senate and is now sitting on the Governor’s desk for a signature. Sensibly, Texas law currently requires solar, wind, and energy storage projects to be decommissioned after the project’s lifecycle, with the land restored. But this bill is also adding a recycling mandate for all decommissioned projects, which obviously adds cost. Add these proposed bills to SB 819, which adds fees for permitting and restricts land use via setback guidelines. And, as I’m writing, I just received word that the bill has died in the House because of opposition groups forcing legislators to miss the committee vote deadline. For now.

Remember, Texas electricity is still relatively cheap, so each obstacle against renewable development will increase the production costs, putting both existing and new projects at greater risk. Each obstacle in Texas further scares project developers and IPPs from doing business in the state. And less development in Texas means less renewable energy jobs. The pipeline of active Texas-based jobs we used to have in origination, development, engineering, construction, operations has progressively dwindled.

I don’t claim to be an expert in the oil and gas industry, but I’ve been to Texas dozens of times and have seen the abandoned oil wells and wondered what happens to them. Are the Republican legislators drafting bills to deal with zombie oil wells? I guess time will tell…

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