Report: Texas Wind and Solar Failed During This Week’s Winter Storm, Grid Carried by ‘Natural Gas and Coal’
A recent snowstorm in Texas caused a sharp drop in the state’s wind and solar power output, forcing natural gas, coal, and nuclear energy to supply most of the electricity.
Kerry Clapp, an online writer cited by meteorologist Ryan Maue, reported on his Substack last week that renewable energy “declined almost immediately” as the storm swept through the state.
“Wind, solar, and batteries fell from briefly supplying about 63% of generation to roughly 7% within 48 hours,” Clapp wrote. “Battery storage played a negligible role, constrained by high prices and lack of surplus electricity.”
Clapp noted that natural gas, coal, and nuclear energy “carried the grid, covering both lost renewables and rising demand.” Energy policy analyst David Blackmon reported that by early Jan. 26, these traditional power sources were providing 89% of Texas’ electricity.
“Natural gas alone is chugging along at an impressive 68%,” Blackmon wrote on Substack the same day.
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
Politico also highlighted that the U.S. energy grid relied heavily on coal and natural gas during Winter Storm Fern. Thanks to these sources, Texas avoided the widespread outages and fatalities seen during the 2021 winter storm.
“No systemwide power outages were reported,” the Houston Chronicle confirmed. “While ice accumulation and falling trees caused some localized outages from Jan. 23 through Jan. 28, local utilities quickly repaired them, and they weren’t caused by grid failures.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott credited this success to the pro-energy policies his administration implemented after the 2021 storm.
“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
“The grid has held once again, works absolutely flawlessly,” Abbott said in a Jan. 26 radio interview with The Texas Tribune. “That is because of everything that we’ve done over the last five years.”
In 2021, Abbott had blamed widespread outages on an over-reliance on wind and solar. “Wind and solar got shut down,” he told Fox News, 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 praised recent legislative reforms. “The reforms enacted by the Texas legislature over the last three sessions are clearly working as intended,” he wrote. He noted that many media outlets initially tried to “debunk” Abbott’s warnings in 2021, but current events appear to support his claims.
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
This story originally appeared on The Western Journal.
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