In the NewsTexas ObserverAugust 14, 2019

Climate Change Will Drive Up Energy Use in Texas and Beyond

When the summer heat peaks in Texas, the familiar hum of air conditioners across the state grows a little louder, and the demand for electricity on the state’s grid shoots up. On Monday, as temperatures soared past 100 degrees across the state, the grid reached a new record demand: 74,531 megawatts of electricity in one hour. That beat last year’s record—which was set during the state’s fifth hottest summer on record—by 1,000 megawatts, the equivalent of powering 200,000 homes for the day. Researchers estimate that climate change could drive up global energy demand by as much as 58 percent in the next 30 years. This story points to Lab estimates showing that by 2050, Dallas will experience 124 extremely hot days—the equivalent of four months. In San Antonio, that number could top out at 150 days by midcentury. That’s longer than the official length of summer in the Northern Hemisphere.