The Austin SHINES project integrates solar energy, energy storage, smart inverters, forecasting tools, market signals, advanced communications and a software optimization platform. Established in 1895, the utility company is a department of the city of Austin and returns its profits to the city's general fund to finance other municipal services. Austin Energy has consistently been ranked by the NREL as one of the top green public energy companies in the country for its GreenChoice renewable energy program. A renowned center for technological innovation, Austin has the infrastructure and talent to support pioneering clean energy initiatives. Austin Energy's total generation capacity is more than 3,000 megawatts (MW), provided by a combination of wind energy, solar energy, biomass, natural gas, nuclear energy and coal.
Austin is also home to the Texas Electrical Reliability Council (ERCOT), which operates the state's independent power grid and manages the deregulated market for 75 percent of Texas. Austin Energy is a utility company that supplies electricity to and around the city of Austin, Texas. Austin, a community with a strong commitment to the environment, sustainability and quality of life, is making its mark as the world's clean energy capital. Since Austin Energy signed the 20-year power purchase agreement with the biomass plant, the price of natural gas has fallen significantly. Whether you're working with solar or wind energy, fuel cells, geothermal and biomass resources, biofuels, or sustainable energy-saving technologies, Austin is the right place and now is the right time to join the clean energy industry.
Austin Energy led a regional effort in 10 counties to develop a community plan to support the adoption of electric vehicles and successfully implemented the first-of-its-kind domestic electric vehicle charging demand response program. Over the course of this project, Austin Energy and its partners will design, develop, and install more than 3 megawatts of distributed storage, smart solar inverters, a DER control platform, and other enabling technologies using customer and utility company locations and multiple models of aggregation. Whether you're working with solar or wind energy, fuel cells, biomass and geothermal resources, biofuels, advanced automotive technologies, energy storage, advanced energy systems, smart grids, or sustainable energy saving technologies, Austin is the right place. As the capital of Texas, Austin offers unparalleled access to energy players in the global energy industry.
Austin Energy operates an energy efficiency program to help customers identify ways to reduce their energy consumption and save on utility bills. In fact, CleanEdge, CICE, SustainLane, Forbes, TIME, Wall Street Journal, NPR, and many others have ranked Austin as the country's leading cleantech innovation hub.
