Report: Texas Wind and Solar Failed During This Week's Winter Storm, Grid Carried by 'Natural Gas and Coal'
The recent snow storm that overtook Texas reportedly crashed the state’s wind and solar energy generators, leading to natural gas, coal, and nuclear providing most of the state’s electricity.
Kerry Clapp, an online writer cited by meteorologist Ryan Maue, reported in his Substack last week that “renewable generation declined almost immediately” as the snow storm took over.
“Wind, solar, and batteries fell from briefly supplying ~63% of generation to ~7% within roughly 48 hours,” he wrote. “Battery storage played a negligible role, constrained by high prices and lack of surplus electricity.”
In conclusion, Clapp reported that “natural gas, coal, and nuclear carried the grid, covering both lost renewables and rising demand.”
Report: Texas renewables ghosted the state during extreme weekend cold.
“Wind, solar, and batteries fell from briefly supplying ~63% of generation to ~7% within roughly 48 hours.”
Grid is up + demand met by coal/gas/nuclear✅https://t.co/UNQFgWcSRF pic.twitter.com/IvFO9ZEobk
— Ryan Maue (@RyanMaue) January 26, 2026
According to David Blackmon, an energy-related public policy analyst and consultant, by the early morning hours of Jan. 26, natural gas, goal, and nuclear were providing 89 percent of all the state’s power.
“Natural gas alone is chugging along at an impressive 68%,” Blackmon reported online on Substack later that same day.
Politico similarly reported that the U.S. energy grid “leaned heavily on coal and natural gas generation to satisfy the energy appetite from Winter Storm Fern.”
Thanks to natural gas, coal, and nuclear energy, Texas experienced far fewer outages and deaths than it did during the winter storm of 2021.
“No systemwide power outages were reported,” according to the Houston Chronicle.
“The U.S. grid leaned heavily on coal and natural gas generation to satisfy the energy appetite from Winter Storm Fern”
(via @POLITICOPro) pic.twitter.com/wLZyUGVwxV
— Steve Everley (@saeverley) January 29, 2026
“While ice accumulation and trees falling on lines did spur localized outages as temperatures plummeted in Texas from Jan. 23 through Jan. 28, they were repaired by local utilities and weren’t a result of grid issues,” the Chronicle confirmed.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott attributed this 180-degree reversal to the pro-energy policies his administration implemented after the 2021 storm.
“The grid has held once again, works absolutely flawlessly,” he said in a Jan. 26 radio interview, according to The Texas Tribune. “That is because of everything that we’ve done over the last five years.”
The reliability of natural gas and coal got Texans safely through the coldest night of the year. Wind was only generating 6MW of 40MW. The green new scam is an epic failure. pic.twitter.com/6KZQSKVaIY
— Mayes Middleton (@mayes_middleton) January 26, 2026
Abbott previously blamed the 2021 winter storm outages and deaths on his state’s prior over-reliance on renewable energy.
“Wind and solar got shut down,” he said in a 2021 Fox News interview, as reported by NPR. “They were collectively more than 10% of our power grid, and that thrust Texas into a situation where it was lacking power on a statewide basis.”
Blackmon also credited the new laws passed by the Abbott administration.
“The reforms enacted by the Texas legislature #txlege over the last three sessions are clearly working as intended,” he wrote.
NPR and virtually every other mainstream media outlet sought in 2021 to “debunk” Abbott by citing so-called experts, yet years later, it appears he’d been right all along.
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