Michael Webber:
That's a great point.
So we have built a lot of wind, a lot of solar, a lot of batteries. So we're at the sort of front edge of this in many ways on the cleaner technologies. We also have a lot of nuclear, coal and gas. We have got a mix of just about everything in Texas.
And the political pushback really is pushing for this idea that wind and solar are not reliable. But what we found in Winter Storm Uri, the February 2021 storm that led to the deaths of hundreds of people and a massive blackout, it was the natural gas infrastructure that froze up, and natural gas, coal and nuclear power plants that went offline.
And we're finding out that solar power plants really perform well when it's sunny outside, no surprise, and those are the same days as hot. So solar has been particularly helpful for us right now, especially since we have like eight to 10 gigawatts of thermal power plants, these traditional power plants like coal and gas, offline. Solar is really helpful.
The hottest days, it's not so windy. Wind is doing OK, but not great. So it's good to have a mix of everything. And renewables, in particular, have been stepping up in these heat waves and saving us a lot of money, while also avoiding a lot of emissions.
More importantly for Texas, the wind and solar power plants don't need water cooling. And water is scarce in Texas. So we're getting a lot of benefits from renewables, but, truthfully, we have a diverse mix, and that's really helpful.
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