Austin News

Two years ago, Georgetown switched to 100% renewable energy, but that shift has now caused electric rates to go up and many critics to find fault with the costs, Energy News Network reported.

“It’s unfortunate that the Georgetown experiment went so quickly from being a success story to being something of a cautionary example,” Adrian Shelley, director of the Texas office of Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy group, told the news agency.

The city claimed to have 100% renewable power because of a credit system connected with electricity purchased after the city bought enough power in 2018 from wind and solar projects to fuel the entire community, according to the news agency.

However, the city contracts for more than what is actually needed in the city, which is a big problem because the surplus, when sold, is done so at weak prices and the city is actually losing money instead of getting a higher return, the news agency reported.

Shelley told the news agency that he was optimistic about renewable energy's growth in the state, but that the issues lie in Georgetown's specific city plan to meet demand.

Georgetown has about 75,000 residents and the news agency reported that the mayor remains hopeful.

“I think that there’s probably some lessons to be learned there for other cities that are interested in doing something similar,” Kyle Harrison, an analyst who covers corporate sustainability at BloombergNEF, a market research firm, told the news agency.

Harrison told the news agency that fixed-price renewable energy deals are often misleading regarding long-term stability for what the parties involved will end up paying for electricity.

Texas Public Policy Foundation Vice President of Research Bill Peacock told the news agency he was concerned with the decisions made by Georgetown city officials.

“They are continuing to bleed money from their taxpayers every day that goes by,” Peacock told the news agency. “They’re desperate to get out of this bad deal that they entered into.”