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Comment by msisk6 | Hacker News Reader

You can go here and download a spreadsheet of Fuel Mix Reports for the ERCOT grid: http://www.ercot.com/gridinfo/generation

In ERCOT wind is 2nd in generation to Gas Combined-Cycle generation (basically jet engines running natural gas). Coal is slightly behind wind and solar and biomass is tiny.

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I dug a little deeper into the EIA reports and their non-hydro renewables category is almost 90% wind. Wind and hydro alone are almost even with coal in April, with the other contributions being quite small.

There is a huge wind power boom in north Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas. I saw thousands of windmills driving through there a couple months ago, and must have passed two dozen semis loaded up with blades to build more. It's a sight to see.

Solar (if you include non-utility solar) was about 3.5% of the total electricity produced in April. That's actually pretty significant. Solar only scraped 1 percent starting in 2015.

(Although I worry about the second derivative... solar's growth is not as impressive in the last 12 months as it was the 12 months prior.)

Solar punches higher than its weight because it produces marginal electricity at times of peak demand.

Yeah people compare solar pricing to subsidized baseload prices. Which is unfavorable. Instead of the more lucrative peeking plant pricing which is higher. Often a lot higher.

Gas Combined Cycle is more than just jet engine running natural gas: it’s also using exhaust gasses to boil water to make steam to run steam turbine. You have both direct electricity generation from turbine burning gas, and also second stage of steam turbine generation.

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