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<\/p>\nOver nine days in February 2021, artificial intelligence and electric vehicles were the furthest concern from most Texans\u2019 minds. They were most immediately worried about heat, water and energy as Winter Storm Uri pushed the state\u2019s electrical grid to the brink of collapse, with millions of residents losing power amid ice and record snowfall.<\/p>\n
When the snow and ice thawed, the state\u2019s leaders saw that their world had changed. Oil and gas could no longer sit in opposition to renewables, Susan Redford said, and the tent had to grow. And that was nearly two years before the latest technological push drove demand for electricity nationwide with the introduction of generative AI and the massive electrical needs of data centers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt really opened the eyes of our legislators to the fact that the electric grid in Texas, was not large enough to sustain an event like that,\u201d said Redford, executive director of the Texas Association of Counties. \u201cThe conversation has really shifted over time to what is necessary to make sure the state has the transmission it needs, to keep all of the different industries that are impacted functioning.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Likewise, the national discussion around energy availability has shifted as what was once a surplus is now seeing regional resources tighten, while the federal government aims policies at exploring new domestic sources of energy and critical minerals to help make energy available and affordable, while also cutting previous programs to support other energy industries.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Texas story is the story that we\u2019re seeing in every state and every [regional transmission organization], just at a much larger scale, because this is Texas,\u201d said Mark Stover, executive director of the Texas Solar and Storage Association.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Counties have been and will be foundational to the drive to generate more and more electricity. Their land use regulations, infrastructure, permitting, job and skills training and more will make the difference between whether a project fails or flourishes. And the tax revenue benefits too could be life-changing for the budgets of host counties. Those concerns drew more than 100 county officials to the inaugural NACo Energy Symposium in the Texas Panhandle Sept. 23-25, meeting in Potter County. Mobile workshops took attendees to energy generation and consumption sites in nearby Potter, Armstrong and Swisher counties.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The state is awash in modes of energy generation. State policies starting in the 1970s and making great strides in the 1990s made the panhandle a leader in wind power generation. Geological work and the sacrifices of untold numbers of plants and animals thousands of years ago gave the region a wealth of natural gas and the nation\u2019s largest oil field. The county\u2019s second largest solar array is under construction outside of Amarillo, not far from the federal government primary nuclear decommissioning facility.<\/p>\n
But the policies that make it all possible have roots in local soil.<\/p>\n
\u201cCounties understand something that is sometimes overlooked in national energy discussions,\u201d Rural Action Caucus Chair Terry Wilbur said during a workshop on nuclear power. \u201cEnergy policy becomes real at the local level. It becomes the tax base that pays for roads, and every road that goes to it from that plant is a county road, plowed by the county. It becomes the employee who buys a home, it becomes the contractor who hires another worker. It becomes the family that depends on a good-paying job, it becomes the emergency management system that protects the whole county, not just the plant. It becomes the transmission line that delivers power where it is needed and it becomes the economic development opportunity that can help a rural community compete with the jobs and industries of tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wilbur, who serves as Oswego County, N.Y. clerk, said that in his 17 years in county office, he had yet to hear residents voice opposition to the county\u2019s three nuclear reactors, though he admitted that the mandated readiness drills could take some getting used to.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In addition to a dozen workshops and discussions, attendees toured two of the largest solar developments in the country in Swisher County, a large wind power development in Carson County and the site of a massive data center under construction in Armstrong County.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Battery storage<\/p>\n
Whichever mode of generation a region chooses, battery capacity will be variable that makes everything work, but it\u2019s dealing with an image problem that experts say is detached from reality on the ground.<\/p>\n
The Moss Landing Power Plant fire in Monterey County, Calif. happened just two years ago, but Adam Capage feels the battery storage industry has moved far beyond world that existed during the two-day fire at one of the world\u2019s largest lithium-ion battery storage factory. But the public\u2019s long memory, and the difficulty they have keeping up with innovation in the field, could complicate buildout of a technology that could help communities meet power needs. Particularly when every flight they take includes a warning about lithium ion batteries.<\/p>\n
Learn more<\/p>\n
Energy Technologies and Siting Considerations: Battery Energy Storage System<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cYou all, in public meetings, are going to again and again hear reference to technology that\u2019s seven or 10 years old,\u201d said Capage, who is outreach and communications director for Renewable Northwest. \u201cPictures from moss landing are from the past, but they\u2019re driving conversation in public policy today. And it really shouldn\u2019t, because technology completely evolved from there,\u201d comparing battery technology advances to artificial intelligence\u2019s evolution.<\/p>\n Texas\u2019s example would seem to back that up, with 99.5% of the state\u2019s 22,000 megawatts of battery storage having been developed since 2020.<\/p>\n Mark Stover, executive director of the Texas Solar and Storage Association, pointed out that the annual increase in demand for power in the state would have only been satisfied by battery storage.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have diversity in the location of that fleet, and that matters. We have generation resources throughout Texas,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd batteries are dispatchable \u2014they are the most flexible, fastest responding resource that we have on the grid.\u201d<\/p>\n Meeting peak demand, Capage said, is all that matters for utility providers.<\/p>\n \u201cThe whole system, all the economics, all the design, all the market rules, all the concern and money it\u2019s spent and debating all comes down to \u2018Can we hit that peak,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cBecause nobody is ever okay not having energy. We have to have electricity all the time. That\u2019s the superpower of batteries.\u201d<\/p>\n What has advanced the technology beyond the world of the Moss Landing fire is the nuanced composition of the batteries.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cMoss Landing was nickel, magnesium, cobalt, or NMC,\u201d Capage said. \u201cToday, everything is LIP. Lithium, iron, phosphate \u2014 completely different dynamics, chemistry, safety levels, heat level that it starts to burn at. So people sometimes conflate and say, just broadly, \u2018lithium ion batteries, you never know what\u2019s gonna happen. They burn for days, they, you know, they burned unreliably, et cetera.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Charlie Nichols, planning director for Linn County, Iowa, outlined how community engagement could take shape around ordinances guiding battery storage.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can have that community engagement process once you receive an application and people are concerned about it, engaging in your public process,\u201d he said. \u201cOr you can start your community engagement process before you have an application on the table and start thinking about what kind of requirements you would want to have in your zoning ordinance, before you\u2019re trying to discuss requirements while well, also evaluating an active project.\u201d<\/p>\n Oil and gas<\/p>\n If counties have learned one thing about oil and gas production, it\u2019s that tax revenue from drilling is cyclical. Sometimes oil and gas are down and other forms of energy are up. Sometimes a particular region gets hot and the crews move on to work somewhere else. If counties want to avoid problems down the line, investing that money in infrastructure is generally a safer move than hiring staff.<\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t build permanent government on temporary commodities,\u201d said Commissioner Steven Villela, who represents Midland County, Texas, in the oil-rich Permian Basin.\u00a0<\/p>\n Even when the money is good, it doesn\u2019t come without strings attached.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ll be flush with people, with cash, but you also have a lot of demands on your hospitals, your sheriff\u2019s department, law enforcement,\u201d said Wise County, Texas Commissioner Kevin Burns, noting that the people who come to town to do the drilling bring their own demands for county services.<\/p>\n Diversifying an oil-and-gas-based economy for the long term?<\/p>\n \u201cMan, I hate to be simple, but you can\u2019t,\u201d Burns said. \u201cWhen it\u2019s gone, it\u2019s gone. Thankfully, when the exploration ends, there are still members of the communities who have to monitor and service that well.<\/p>\n \u201cThat keeps the cafes going and the hotels filled.\u201d<\/p>\n Wind and solar<\/p>\n Stories of the death of renewable energy seem to be greatly exaggerated, so far, after the 30% federal solar tax credit ended following passage of H.R. 1. Though some projects were canceled in 2025 and 2026, the landscape is stabilizing as developers decide to continue without the tax credit.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re at a weird nexus because we had accelerated sunsetting of policies that we were expecting to go for another half decade, at least. And yet, the industries haven\u2019t necessarily collapsed,\u201d said Charles Newcomb, technology director for Mana Group Consulting. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of fear at the beginning, a lot of anxiety, and then last year, there was a lot less.\u201d<\/p>\n Learn more<\/p>\n Energy Technologies and Siting Considerations: Wind Energy<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Midland](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/DSC09059.JPG\")
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