Global Offset Experts: Texas now receives 7.8% of its electricity from wind generation.

Jan. 12, 2011 - PRLog -- Global Offset Experts has learned from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) that electricity usage in Texas rose 3.5% in 2010 to 319,097 gigawatt-hours for 2010, boosted by the severe winter and extremely hot summer.

During 2009, power usage dipped 1.35% from the previous year as economic conditions tightened.

Overall, usage in the US rebounded in 2010 by 3.7% from 2009 which saw the largest annual slump since 2005.Last year’s increase in electricity consumption was also attributable to the extreme summer conditions experienced across the continent the Edison Electric Institute told Global Offset Experts.

The U.S.’s electricity consumption has remained below the levels seen before the global economic crisis began in 2007 while consumption in Texas surpassed 2008 usage according to the data.

The ERCOT information available to Global Offset Experts also showed that output from wind and coal-fired electricity generation increased in 2010 as new power generation plants came on line, paring the share of power generated by natural gas-fired plants for the third consecutive year.

Texas is the leading U.S. state in installed wind capacity with a current total of 9,528 MW at the end of 2010, up from 612 in 2009.

Global Offset Experts analysts say that they expect wind farm additions in Texas to drop significantly in 2011 as developers await a $5 billion expansion of the transmission network which will enable more wind power to be funneled in to the states power hungry cities from remote areas.

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