In Texas Oil Country, Wind Is Straining the Grid

A new $8 billion electricity transmission system is now complete, but it’s already nearing maximum capacity.

The Lone Star state is by far the largest state for wind power, with nearly 18,000 megawatts of wind generation capacity already built and another 5,500 megawatts—nearly equal to California’s total installed capacity—planned. The biggest driver of that wind boom was an $8 billion transmission system that was built to bring electricity from the desolate…