I liked the discussion, too, but if anything the recent cold snap where I live just points out we've got a LOOOOOOOONG ways to go till we get enough 'green' energy to make a dent in anything, and that the current 'green' energy sources are woefully inadequate at times, to the point of being life-threatening to depend on them in extreme circumstances. We had hospitals here with no heat on some floors (GF is in health care, so I got a first-hand report of that).
In a 24 hour period, our electric usage in this state hit a record 69,000 megawatts, and likely would have gone higher if the grid hadn't gone belly up. Compare that to what I could find as our previous 24 hour summer peak usage, 74,000 megawatts. My friends who are the most ardent believers in 'green' energy, invariably have the least understanding of what electricity is, or how it works. So they're voting for things (or politicians who support things) that basically they have zero understanding of, because it sounds good. If you live in a state that's shutting down power plants, and then turning around and buying power from other states that have fossil-fuel power plants just so you can feel that your state is 'greener,' then actually use MORE fuel because of the resistance in power lines that run hundreds or thousands of miles, you aren't really 'greener.' That's a fine point that most people can't comprehend, due to lack of understanding of the subject matter.
ERCOT doesn't seem to break down usage more granular than 24 periods, but likely the night time draw was higher than the daytime draw, due to people trying to keep warm. Even during daylight hours, with much of the week overcast, solar likely wasn't making much of a dent. Of course solar helps in the summer but..... it ain't summer (though you can get sunburned in December here, and temps in the 70s yesterday).
Unlike traditional power plants, you can't just 'turn up' the power you get out of a solar cell, or a wind turbine, assuming traditional power plants have excess capacity (they usually do for maintenance reasons if nothing else).
Adding in the demands of charging EVs, if everyone in the state owned one, would have just made a bad situation much, much worse.
The first step to starting down the 'green' path (if we want to call it that) is to pretty much rebuild every structure in this state, or country for that matter, or the world, to cut down on energy usage. My GF's house, built in the 70s, still has single-pane windows (on the to-do list to update) and you can pretty much tell which way the wind is blowing, from inside the house, with the windows shut. And that's easy to fix, compared to wall insulation (basically impossible to change much).
My house has double-pane windows, but the seals are going, and there's a bit of airflow through them, not nearly as bad. I rented a blower and put a LOT more insulation in my attic, and also radiant barrier (shiny mylar film, basically) on the underside of the rafters, and that did help. Mostly I did that because my A/C couldn't keep up in the summer, not to be an altruistic environmentalist, but the end result is the same - it helps cut down on fossil fuel usage (house heated with a natural gas furnace). But it was an awful job. And let's face it, there's a huge segment of the population who either can't do basic maintenance / upgrades because they don't have the skills or physical ability, or they rent and don't have the option. Throw in all the non-residential structures that need upgrades.... huge job. Slapping on a few more solar panels on roofs doesn't "fix" the infrastructure.
Ironically, one of my friends tried to sign up to get solar panels on his roof, but was told by the utility company that he had too many trees. There's an environmentalist nightmare... cut down trees to save the planet with solar!!!!
Start with the root cause (we waste vast amounts of energy when spending a few bucks on upgrades can pay off pretty quickly) and work through the problem from the source, instead of slapping band-aids on things that can't be fixed with band-aids. Personal take on it, and how I approach problem solving, generally. Start at the beginning, not the end.