[noddingham]

I don't think it's power generation that is the issue, but more distribution and protection of the infrastructure. As a commenter above mentioned TX produces lots of wind power (in the early 2000s the only thing governor good hair did was build the hell out of wind farms), but there's not strong regulation on the power companies to ensure the grid is working well. Case in point the cold snap a few years ago with TX govt officials and others crying "you can't make wind turbines work in the cold" despite evidence in New England and the Midwest to the contrary.

Much of TX energy infrastructure is above ground poles running along the highways. I don't know what the lifespan is of those but I wouldn't be surprised if many of them could be classified as antiques. If they aren't being regular inspected/replaced, they are likely to go down

Also, the energy companies can sell electricity to other states, and I won't be easily convinced that during this event they stopped doing that (because profits). Lastly, see previous winter event and direct recorded quotes from energy companies about how much money they were making by increased prices and I think there are several reasons why this keeps happening in TX.

[roughly]

> the early 2000s the only thing governor good hair did was build the hell out of wind farms

It really was not long ago that “free non-polluting energy” was a thing that Republicans could get behind. Even Bush got very into biofuels, albeit going about it in the worst way possible. That party’s taken a strange turn in the last decade.