The zero greenhouse gas emissions trio -- wind, solar, and nuclear energy -- provided more than 40 percent of electricity in the state in 2022. It was a year when several Texas cities experienced their hottest summers on record, driving electricity demand to its highest levels ever as fans and air conditioners switched on. Winter proved stressful too, with freezing temperatures last month pushing winter electricity peaks to record-high levels, narrowly avoiding outages.

Texas wasn't alone. Over the past year, states like California have faced their own brushes with blackouts as searing temperatures drove up electricity consumption while the ongoing drought in the Western US throttled power supplies. Throughout the country, renewable energy is growing, but so are threats to the power grid. Utility regulators are trying to come up with ways to cope, and Texas -- the largest energy producer in the US -- could provide critical lessons.

However, Texas has some unique factors at play.

Texas leads the US in oil and natural gas production, but it's also number one in wind power. Solar production in the state has almost tripled in the past three years. [...]

Since there are few grid connections to other states, the Texas power grid avoids federal oversight, giving Texans more flexibility in setting their own rules. The downside is that Texas has a hard time getting extra juice when its own dynamos lose steam.

That was starkly evident in February 2021 when Winter Storm Uri chilled huge swaths of the United States. In Texas, more than 4 million customers lost power as temperatures dipped below those in Alaska. The official death toll was 246, though some estimates place the number higher.

The blackouts resulted largely from frozen coal piles and natural gas pipelines, stalling the flow of fuel into power plants.