California grid sets solar power record - E&E News by POLITICO
California grid sets solar power record - E&E News by POLITICO
In a milestone, California produced enough renewable energy to meet its total electricity demand for portions of the past 21 straight days.
Stanford University civil and environmental engineering professor Mark Z. Jacobson calculated that on 50 of the 58 days between March 7 and May 4 — including the last 21 consecutive days — renewable energy sources supplied more than 100 percent of energy demand for between 15 minutes and 10 hours on the California Independent System Operator grid — which accounts for 80 percent of the Golden State’s electricity.
“It’s never happened before to this scale,” Jacobson said in an interview. “In past years, California has occasionally met 100 percent of demand, but only on a weekend day and never two days in a row and never during the week.”
While new solar infrastructure and favorable seasonal weather have pushed California to its landmark streak of renewable energy generation, the state’s average renewable capacity is also sharply increasing as wind, solar, and hydropower shatter records across the U.S.
Related Knowledge Center: ENERGY BASICS: solar
Declining costs and government encouragement have resulted in a rapid increase in solar energy production in the United States over the past 10 years, although solar’s share remains small: 1.6 percent of all electricity generation in 2018. That rapid growth is projected to continue.