Location
Renewable Portfolio Standard
Topics
Description
The 21st century boom in wind and solar power in Texas can be traced back to 1999, when Texas enacted SB 7, deregulating the state’s retail electric market, mandating installation of 2000 MW of new renewable capacity by 2009, and creating a market-based trading system.
To bring new renewably-generated electricity to metropolitan markets from the wind farms and solar arrays mostly located in remote parts of Texas, the state passed SB 20 in 2005. This statute decreed a massive $7 billion build-out of 3600 miles of high-voltage transmission lines, with the costs borne by all ratepayers. The 2005 legislation also raised the state’s renewable power goal to 5880 MW by 2015, further leveraging the ambitions of SB 7.
Location Notes
A marker commemorating SB 7 might fit near McCamey, Texas, where wind developers flocked soon after the law's passage, quickly building out facilities such as King Mountain. A marker here would also help show the continued evolution of the Texas energy industry, as McCamey was the site of a major oil strike of 1925, and had been traditionally associated with fossil fuel development. Near McCamey, the US67 pulloff, just east of the intersection with CR 450, has two existing THC Markers - Numbers 4334 (Rodman-Noel Oil Field) and 4205 (ND). This could provide an existing well-traveled, publicly-owned site with easy parking and a good view of the Southwest Mesa Wind Project to the south.