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Original source title: "California just debunked a big myth about renewable energy"
Summary
The article discusses the reliability and growth of renewable energy in California, highlighting a recent study that shows how renewables met 100% of the state’s electricity demand for up to 10 hours on 98 out of 116 days last year. Despite the challenges posed by wildfires and high electricity rates, California is rapidly transitioning to renewable sources like solar, wind, and hydropower, with significant advancements in battery storage technologies. The report also underscores the economic benefits of renewables, noting that they are typically cheaper than fossil fuels, and suggests that increased adoption of renewable energy sources can lead to lower electricity prices for consumers.
Highlights
- 🌞 Record Renewable Energy Usage: California met 100% of its electricity demand from renewables for 98 out of 116 days.
- 🔋 Battery Storage Growth: The state’s battery capacity has doubled in just one year, equivalent to the output of four nuclear power plants.
- 🔌 Economic Advantages: Renewables are generally lower cost than fossil fuels, making them economically viable.
- 🔍 Solar and Wind Performance: Solar output increased by 31% and wind by 8% compared to previous years.
- 🚒 Utility Challenges: High electricity rates are more due to utility costs related to wildfire prevention than the cost of renewable energy.
- ⚡ Evening Power Demand: Battery storage allows utilities to supply electricity in the evening, when demand peaks.
- 🌍 Myth-Busting: The study dispels myths about the unreliability of renewables and their ability to support electric vehicles and heat pumps.
One of the biggest myths about renewable energy is that it isn’t reliable. Sure, the sun sets every night and winds calm down, putting solar panels and turbines to sleep. But when those renewables are humming, they’re providing the grid with electricity and charging banks of batteries, which then supply power at night.
A new study in the journal Renewable Energy that looked at California’s deployment of renewable power highlights just how reliable the future of energy might be. It found that last year, from late winter to early summer, renewables fulfilled 100 percent of the state’s electricity demand for up to 10 hours on 98 of 116 days, a record for California. Not only were there no blackouts during that time, thanks in part to backup battery power, but at their peak the renewables provided up to 162 percent of the grid’s needs — adding extra electricity California could export to neighboring states or use to fill batteries.
“This study really finds that we can keep the grid stable with more and more renewables,” said Mark Z. Jacobson, a civil and environmental engineer at Stanford University and lead author of the new paper. “Every major renewable — geothermal, hydro, wind, solar in particular, even offshore wind — is lower cost than fossil fuels” on average, globally.
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