Petroleum remains the largest energy source in the United States. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), 14.02 million barrels of petroleum are burned per day by vehicles alone, and that’s not accounting for the total carbon footprint that comes from the consumption of other petroleum products in the private and industrial sectors.
They are efforts to wean off of fossil fuels to reduce dependency on foreign oil and to produce cheaper, cleaner alternative energy sources.
Some states have developed different methods of energy production; including solar and wind.
At a glance, Texas is a prime candidate for these alternative energy sources.
Our wide, windy plains are ideal places for wind and solar farms. Development of these farms over the past decade has seen Texas as fifth in the nation in terms of solar energy production, and first in wind energy production, according to CBS News. Further still, the Texas Solar Energy Society expects Texas’s solar energy production to grow by 6,409 megawatts (MW) over the next five years, essentially quadrupling 2017’s output of 2,814 MWs.
Despite Texas’s stereotype as the land of gas and oil, the state’s production in renewable energy is nothing to scoff at.
Some Texas towns are quick to adopt alternative energy sources, including Georgetown, which in 2017, became the largest town by population in the United States to be powered exclusively by renewable energy.
“You think of climate change and renewable energy, from a political standpoint, on the left-hand side of the spectrum, and what I’ve done is toss all those partisan political thoughts aside,” says Republican Mayor of Georgetown Dale Ross, as quoted by the Smithsonian.
“We’re doing this because it’s good for our citizens. Cheaper electricity is better. Clean energy is better than fossil fuels.”
As energy technologies develop and better storage facilities alleviate concerns about the inconsistency of solar and wind energy, Texas is set to be a leader in production of clean, renewable energy that will help lessen the dependency on fossil fuels and reduce the environmental impact of our energy needs in the future.
