How the Oil Capital of the US Welcomed a Solar Power Boom - BBC News
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By Nathalie Jimenez, Business Reporter
Published 1 hour ago
Steve Cargil's family has farmed the flat, dry land around Uvalde, a small city in southwest Texas, since 1953. Cargil, 67, had always assumed that one of his three children would eventually take over, the way he had from his father. But after a devastating hailstorm in 2018, that assumption was put to the test.
"I remember my son saying, 'Dad, I just don't know if I can do this. You do everything right, and we work so hard, and you come out one morning and it's all gone'," says Cargil.
Cargil's farm was at risk of ending with him, leaving none of his children interested in taking over full-time. This led him to question what would happen to the land and his retirement.
Then, in 2001, he signed a deal to lease 600 acres—a quarter of his total land—to OCI Energy, which built a vast solar farm.
"Never in my wildest dreams did I think that a solar project would be on my farm," Cargil admits. Now, looking back, he considers it a blessing.
The lease pays Cargil $200,000 per year, allowing him to weather the drought and concentrate his water irrigation allowance on the remaining farmed land.
Texas, the largest oil producer in the US, has transformed into a solar power leader. This year, it surpassed California as the country's top generator of electricity from solar farms. In March 2022, solar energy even topped coal for the first time in Texas' power mix, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
On hot afternoons when demand peaks, solar now regularly contributes about a third of Texas' total electricity usage, says Mark Stover, executive director of the Texas Solar and Storage Association. He attributes this boom to two key factors:
- Easy Connection: Texas' independent power grid allows for quick and straightforward connection of solar farms.
- Growing Energy Demand: The state's population is booming, increasing by 15.8% between 2015 and 2025.
Solar's affordability has also reached record lows, thanks to decades of manufacturing improvements that have driven down prices. James Scott, vice president of project development at OCI, notes:
"No one would have believed that 20 years ago."
With established projects offering fixed electricity prices for decades due to free sunlight fuel, solar is now the cheapest power generation method in Texas.