I don't know if they have fixed contracts, but operating costs for nuclear are very low, so they want to run all the time. if they're selling on the wholesale market, they can submit very low bids to ERCOT and always be the first power chosen along with wind + solar.
for political reasons I won't go into, TX incentivized wind much more than solar over the last few decades, so we have 3x more wind than solar capacity. in recent years, solar has been catching up, though.
There's a climate-relevant feedback in the energy transition. When more renewable energy enters the mix and electrification in transport also rises, gas and oil find fewer buyers. So far so good. But what are the firms to do with their surplus? Pollute even more ofc! With CH4 . @txsharon.bsky.social
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What a great twist. Also thank GW Bush, who screwed us up in many other ways but not this part:
https://www.texastribune.org/2013/09/17/book-excerpt-how-public-got-behind-tx-wind-power/