Examines the potential for the use of renewable resources to supply energy needs in Texas. Explores and compares the benefits of wind, solar, geothermal, and biomass energy. Discusses residential and industrial electrical efficiency, and gives an overview of natural gas as a backup fuel source. Proposals for the implementation of sustainable energy programs are accompanied by a look at the market barriers to these programs and suggested incentives and targets for achievable objectives. Contains maps, tables and schematics.

Prepared and published by the Texas Electric Transportation Resources Alliance, this 170-page book describes the technology and philosophy behind the need to transform Texas transportation. Written by key leaders in the electric transportation field, it includes chapters on why electric transportation is important and how it will positively affect the electric grid, the quality of air, the health of all Texans, the economy, and the pocketbooks of all Texans.

Innovation Dynamics and Policy in the Energy Sector discusses the process and future of global innovation in the energy sector based on the innovation leadership example of Texas. The book proposes that the positive dynamics of Texas energy sector innovations arises from a confluence of factors, including supportive institutions, the management of technological change, competitive markets, astute public policy, intraindustrial collaboration, a cultural focus on change and risk-taking, and natural resource abundance. Heavily case-study focused chapters review the fundamental drivers of innovation, from key discoveries at Spindletop; the proliferation of oil production through major field development; through electric sector deregulation; and recent innovation in hydraulic fracking, renewable integration, and carbon capture. The work closes to argue that sustainable global innovation addressing the twin challenges of climate change and the energy transition must be driven by the promotion of competition and risk-taking which continually promotes the development of ideas, a process jointly funded by the public and private sectors and supported by collaborative and competitive institutions. Reviews the fundamental drivers of energy innovation and examines each driver through 10 key episodes in the Texas energy innovation experience, inclusive of guidance to the international research community based on their example. Establishes the critical impact of constructive energy policy, energy technology, and power markets in cultural settings that invite change and risk-taking and proposes them as key factors in building sustainable innovation. Consolidates current research and practice related to innovation from the perspectives of established (economics and engineering) and emergent (innovation economics and econometrics) disciplines.

In the late 1990s, West Texas was full of rundown towns and pumpjacks, aging reminders of the oil rush of an earlier era. Today, the towns are thriving as 300-foot-tall wind turbines tower above those pumpjacks. Wind energy has become Texas’s latest boom, with the Lone Star State now leading the nation. How did this dramatic transformation happen in a place that fights federal environmental policies at every turn? In The Great Texas Wind Rush, environmental reporters Kate Galbraith and Asher Price tell the compelling story of a group of unlikely dreamers and innovators, politicos and profiteers. The tale spans a generation and more, and it begins with the early wind pioneers, precocious idealists who saw opportunity after the 1970s oil crisis. Operating in an economy accustomed to exploiting natural resources and always looking for the next big thing, their ideas eventually led to surprising partnerships between entrepreneurs and environmentalists, as everyone from Enron executives to T. Boone Pickens, as well as Ann Richards, George W. Bush and Rick Perry, ended up backing the new technology. In this down-to-earth account, the authors explain the policies and science that propelled the “windcatters” to reap the great harvest of Texas wind. They also explore what the future holds for this relentless resource that is changing the face of Texas energy.