A year after the fatal failure of the Texas electric grid sparked a backlash against clean power, its renewable energy sector hasn't slowed down. Texas, already the top wind power producer in the US, is on pace to become number 1 in solar electricity in a few years. Despite some initial negative press, "most of the renewable assets performed exceptionally well during that storm," says Jason Allen of Leeward Renewable Energy, which is owned by the Ontario Municipal Employees' Retirement System and has developed utility-scale wind and solar projects in Texas. The storm did show the need for all types of power plants to be more resilient as climate change causes more severe and frequent weather events. At the same time, more transmission lines are needed in Texas to enable power to better reach storm-affected areas, and increased connections to neighboring states' power grids to allow Texas to import electricity when needed.
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