Apps for a Fresh Start

The best apps to ensure you stay on track with those new year's goals

Tackle your New Year's resolutions with these helpful apps.

It's a new year, and those of us who made resolutions are mere days into the process. Popular New Year's goals include a desire to lose weight, get organized, spend less money, or cut down on stress. But the key is not to forget about your resolutions come February when the buzz of the new year wears off.

Why not improve your chances for a better you with the help of technology? These mobile apps may do the trick.

Get fit

Lose It
Taking off unwanted pounds is not always easy, but this weight-loss app makes it easier. Enter meals for a calorie count, and upload workout details to chart your progress.

MapMyFitness
Looking for new trails? Want to track exactly how long it takes you to jog around your neighborhood? Use MapMyFitness to get your stats as you make moves and share or discover amazing new paths in your city.

RockMyRun
Do you like music when you run? Maximize your jam session with this app, which adjusts the tempo of your music to get you moving a little faster. Also choose from playlists of high-energy music in any genre.

The Walk
This thrilling app casts you as the protagonist on a mission to walk the length of the U.K. to save the world. Listen as you walk, build upon your progress, and get fit while the story plays out.

Get organized

Wunderlist
For those operating on several devices throughout the day, keeping organized can be a challenge. With Wunderlist, get reminders, plan, and collaborate, and upload it all into the cloud.

Penultimate
Use Penultimate if you like lists in your own handwriting. Write, doodle, and share things like maps, ideas for decorating rooms, and more. Access your visuals when you need them.

TaskRabbit
What's to do if you simply don't have the time to complete everything on your list? Hire someone to do it for you! It's never been easier than posting a chore to TaskRabbit (say, raking your lawn) and letting its team connect you with someone to help you cross it off your list.

Gallery Doctor
Keep your gallery streamlined with this app designed to cut duplicate pictures or those with low lighting. Gallery Doctor presents subpar photos for your approval or dismissal, and edits accordingly.

Keeply
Don't like people playing on your phone? Catch them in the act with Keeply, which snaps a picture of the person attempting to get into your phone. Store passwords and lock down sensitive media files with this app.

BillMinder
Take some time to get organized by getting all your bills in one place. Set up reminders and use the autopay function so you never miss a payment.

Expand your horizons

Pause
Based on principals of tai chi, this app offers simple tasks scientifically designed to help you relax.

RedLaser
Save money so you can focus on doing the things you love. But in order to save, you have to compare prices. Use RedLaser to scan bar codes and compare prices instantly, so you can be sure you're getting the best deal.

Duolingo
Want to travel in 2016? Learn another language in your down time with this easy-to-use educational app. With mini-lessons and stats to remind you of where you are, this app can turn waiting in long lines into a passport to another world.

apps fitness health trends

Under the Sun

Solar power poised to surpass coal for the first time in Texas

Photo by Bill Mead on Unsplash

Utility-scale solar generation has been increasing steadily in Texas.

Solar power promises to shine even brighter in Texas this year. A new forecast from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) indicates that for the first time, annual power generation from utility-scale solar will surpass annual power generation from coal across the territory covered by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT).

Solar generation is expected to reach 78 billion kilowatt-hours in 2026 in the ERCOT grid, compared with 60 billion kilowatt-hours for coal, the EIA forecast says. The ERCOT grid supplies power to about 90 percent of Texas.

“Utility-scale solar generation has been increasing steadily in ERCOT as solar capacity additions help meet rapid electricity demand growth,” the forecast says.

Although natural gas remains the dominant source of electricity generation in ERCOT, accounting for an average 44 percent of electricity generation from 2021 to 2025, solar’s share of the generation mix rose from 4 percent to 12 percent. During the same period, coal’s share dropped from 19 percent to 13 percent.

EIA predicts about 40 percent of U.S. solar capacity, or 14 billion kilowatt-hours, added in 2026 will come from Texas.

Although EIA expects annual solar generation to exceed annual coal generation in 2026, solar surpassed coal in ERCOT on a monthly basis for the first time in March 2025, when solar generation totaled 4.33 billion kilowatt-hours and coal’s totaled 4.16 billion kilowatt-hours. Solar generation continued to exceed that of coal until August of that year.

“In 2026, we estimate that solar exceeded coal for the first time in March, and we forecast generation from solar installations in ERCOT will continue to exceed that from coal until December, when coal generation exceeds solar,” says EIA. “We expect solar generation to exceed that of coal for every month in 2027 except January and December.”

For 2027, EIA forecasts annual solar generation of 99 billion kilowatt-hours in the ERCOT grid, compared with 66 billion kilowatt-hours of annual coal generation.

In April, ERCOT projected almost 368 billion kilowatt-hours of demand in ERCOT’s territory by 2032. ERCOT’s all-time peak demand hit 85.5 billion kilowatt-hours in August 2023.

“Texas is experiencing exceptional growth and development, which is reshaping how large load demand is identified, verified, and incorporated into long-term planning,” ERCOT President and CEO Pablo Vegas said. “As a result of a changing landscape, we believe this forecast to be higher than expected … load growth.”

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This article first appeared on our sister site, EnergyCapitalHTX.

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