Expert Perspective: From Texas to the World: The Energy Lesson Emerging From the Iran War

As global markets feel the ripple effects of the Iran war, a recent Fort Worth Star-Telegram feature highlights a critical lesson emerging from Texas: energy resilience depends on diversification.

Drawing on more than two decades of policy, infrastructure investment, and market-driven growth, the state has built one of the most robust and flexible energy systems in North America - one that blends traditional fossil fuels with rapidly scaled renewable sources like wind.

Dr. Mike Slattery of Texas Christian University’s Ralph Lowe Energy Institute points to Texas as a case study in how diversified energy systems can withstand extreme pressure - from geopolitical shocks to record-breaking demand. The state’s ability to avoid emergency conservation alerts, even during peak stress periods, reflects long-term strategic decisions and market alignment rather than short-term fixes.

"Texas’s energy story is one of scale and speed," says Slattery. "The state’s grid operator, ERCOT, now manages roughly 90% of the state’s electrical load, and in the first nine months of 2025, that grid saw the fastest demand growth of any in the United States, up 23% compared with the same period in 2021. Wind and solar together met 36% of that surging demand, with utility-scale solar generating 50% more electricity than the prior year. Wind capacity, meanwhile, has grown from just 116 megawatts in 1999 to more than 40,000 megawatts today. Battery storage is now doubling year over year. These aren’t incremental gains. I believe they are the fingerprints of a system deliberately built to flex. One number really tells the story. About 90% of projects lined up for connection to the Texas grid are wind, solar, or battery storage. This reveals where investors believe the fastest, cheapest growth lies."

Professor Mike Slattery is Director of the Institute for Environmental Studies and Lead Scientist on the TCU-Oxford-Nextera Wind Research Initiative at Texas Christian University.

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The Texas system didn’t emerge by accident. It was built in two deliberate stages. In 1999, Texas enacted one of the country’s first Renewable Portfolio Standards, a market signal that set a direction and let private capital follow. The state blew past its 2025 renewable energy target by 2009, sixteen years early. The second stage was infrastructure. The Competitive Renewable Energy Zones project — a nearly $7 billion transmission investment — physically connected wind-rich West Texas to the population centers in the east, building over 3,500 miles of high-voltage lines before developers were even required to commit. Policy led (interestingly, Republican policy) and then investment followed.

"For policymakers watching global energy markets destabilize in real time, my read on the Texas model is direct: diversification isn’t an environmental argument — it’s a security argument. The lesson isn’t to replicate Texas, but to absorb its logic. Build transmission infrastructure ahead of demand. Set policy direction without picking winners and not based on ideology. And resist the temptation to anchor a grid to any single fuel source, because a grid with one input is a grid with one vulnerability."

For journalists covering global energy volatility, supply disruptions, or the long-term implications of conflict, this story underscores a larger truth: resilience isn’t built overnight. It’s the result of sustained investment, policy alignment, and a willingness to embrace multiple energy pathways, lessons that are increasingly relevant as countries around the world scramble to stabilize supply and control costs.