Clean Energy Victories in Austin
By Kaiba White
We had several good victories for clean energy in Austin last week. Four initiatives that Public Citizen has championed were approved by the Austin City Council last Thursday. Here is how Austin is taking steps toward a clean, affordable and reliable energy future.
Solar for City of Austin Facilities
For decades, the City of Austin has supported on-site solar for homes and businesses with incentives. But the city has been slow to utilize the technology to cover its own energy needs. A few higher-profile buildings – including City Hall, the Central Library, and Austin Energy Headquarters – have utilized rooftop solar, but it’s still far from the norm at city buildings.
Public Citizen and its allies have advocated for the city to take this obvious step to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and operating expenses. Our analysis shows that 96 city-owned buildings could host a combined 14 megawatts (MW) of rooftop solar that would produce over 38,000 megawatt-hours (MWh) of electricity annually – and that doesn’t include the potential for solar shade structures over parking lots or other ground-mounted systems. The Austin Joint Sustainability Committee passed two recommendations last year, encouraging the city to invest in solar for its facilities, one in March as part of budget recommendations and another in November. The Austin Climate Action and Resilience team has been working with Austin Facilities Management and Austin Energy to evaluate city facilities and solicit contracts for solar installations.
, Two contracts have been approved by the Austin City Council. One is with Big Sun Solar for approximately 25 MW of solar that the city will own. These installations will be connected on the city’s side of the electric meter and will directly reduce the city’s electric bills. The second is with PowerFin Texas Solar Projects, under which the city will host solar installations at its facilities through Austin Energy’s Solar Standard Offer program. These installations will be connected to the grid side of the electric meters, so the city won’t receive a reduction in electric bills. Instead, the city will receive an estimated $17.7 million in roof lease payments from PowerFin over the 25-year contract. Public Citizen led the advocacy for creating the Solar Standard Offer program and was heavily involved in its development. This is a win on two levels.
Landfill Solar
Landfills are generally considered an environmental scourge, but solar energy offers an opportunity for at least partial redemption. The City of Austin’s FM 812 landfill in South Austin began operations in 1961, stopped accepting public waste in 2006, and was permanently closed in 2021. Now, the landfill will get a second chance at a better life by hosting a solar energy farm. The City Council approved a 25-year contract for Austin Energy to purchase power from an 8 MW solar farm that UPower Energy will develop on the site. This energy will be used to meet the local needs of Austin Energy customers.
Customer-Sited Batteries
Austin Energy recently established a battery incentive program for those who purchase their own batteries, but given the high cost of home batteries, an additional solution was needed. Many have asked over the past few years why Austin Energy customers can’t get a battery through Base Power, as residents in many parts of the state can. The answer was that Austin Energy – which has the exclusive right to sell energy to customers in its service territory – didn’t have an agreement with Base Power. That barrier is now being eliminated.
City Council approved a contract between Austin Energy and Base Power for the installation of up to 40 MW of customer-sited batteries. Austin Energy will be able to utilize these batteries to avoid local price spikes. What the arrangement between Base Power and Austin Energy customers will look like haven’t been announced, but we’re expecting that some portion of the battery capacity at a home or business will be reserved for backup power needs.
Residential Solar and Commercial Demand Response
Public Citizen and its allies have also spent years advocating for solutions to expand access to residential rooftop solar. It has been a tale of many disappointments, but we refuse to give up. Residential rooftop solar offers the largest total potential for solar energy capacity in Austin and widespread development of residential rooftop solar can improve community resilience, while more equitably distributing the financial benefits of energy production. While Austin Energy has embraced the Solar Standard Offer program for solar installations at commercial buildings, it has abandoned development of the residential program.
City Council approved a resolution sponsored by council members Alter, Fuentes, Velásquez, and Siegel that directs the City Manager (who will in turn direct Austin Energy) to continue the work to expand residential solar with options that don’t require the property owner to invest. That’s the beauty of the Solar Standard Offer – the property owner gets paid for the use of their space and doesn’t have to invest at all. The solar company makes the investment and sells the energy to the utility. While it’s frustrating that this program wasn’t already implemented by January 2026, as committed to in the Austin Energy Resource, Generation and Climate Protection Plan to 2035, at least this resolution keeps it alive.
The resolution also directs the city manager to explore ways to increase commercial properties’ participation by commercial properties in demand response programs. Demand response is when customers reduce their energy consumption during times of peak demand. Commercial customers generally get paid for participating.
The Big Picture
Taken together, these solutions are just what we need to enable a transition away from fossil fuels. We’ll need more of all these solutions, but these positive steps are worth celebrating and are something we can point to as we continue to advocate for a fully carbon-free energy portfolio for Austin Energy.
Kaiba White is a climate policy and outreach specialist in the Texas office of Public Citizen