California just debunks important myths about renewable energy »Yale Climate Connection

One of the biggest myths about renewable energy is that it is unreliable. Of course, the sun sets down every night, bringing the solar panels and turbines to sleep. But when these renewables buzz, they provide power and battery charge to the grid and then provide power at night.

A new study conducted in the journal Renewable Energy, which examines the deployment of renewable energy in California, highlights the reliability of the future of energy. It found that last year, renewable energy met 100% of the state's electricity demand for up to 10 hours in 98 days of 116 days, a record for California. Not only did there be no power outages during this period, thanks in part to backup battery power, but at its peak, renewable energy provides up to 162% of grid demand – California adds additional power to be exported to neighboring states or used for Fill the battery.

“This study does find that we can keep the grid stable of more and more renewable energy sources in grids,” said Mark Z. Jacobson, a civil and environmental engineer at Stanford University and lead author of the new paper. “Global, each major renewable energy source (especially geothermal, hydraulic, wind, solar, and even solar) costs less than fossil fuels.

However, Californians paid the second highest interest rate for the country's electricity. It's not because of renewable energy, but partly because of the electrical equipment of the utility that triggered wildfires, such as the camp fires initiated by Pacific gas and power lines, which destroyed Paradise Town and killed 85 people – now they passed from The cost of litigation and burying transmission lines to clients. While investigators are unsure what inspired all the wildfires that destroyed Los Angeles this month, they will double-check the area's electrical equipment. Power lines are particularly prone to fail in strong winds, such as gusts of 100 miles per hour turning these Southern California fires into monsters.

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Even with the ongoing challenges of wildfires, California utilities quickly moved to clean energy, with the state producing about half of the capacity of renewable energy sources such as Hydropower, Wind and Solar. The study compared 116 days in 2024 with the same period in 2023 and found that California's solar energy production was 31% higher and winds were as high as 8%. After more than 30 times between 2020 and 2023, the state's battery capacity doubled between 2023 and 2024, now equivalent to juice produced by more than four nuclear power plants. According to the study, all new cleaning technologies helped California power plants burn 40% of fossil fuels last year.

These batteries help grid operators be more flexible in meeting their power needs, which peaks when people return home in the evening and turn on appliances such as air conditioners — just when the grid loses solar power. “Now, we're seeing batteries being charged in one day and then meeting part of demand at night, especially during those hot summer months,” said Mark Rothleder, chief operating officer of California Independent Systems. Nonprofit organization.

Another common myth about renewable energy is that they will not be able to support more electric cars, induction furnaces and heat pumps plugged into the grid. But here, California also ruined the myth: between 2023 and 2024, demand for the state's grid actually dropped by about 1% during the study period.

Why? Part of this is because some customers have installed their own solar panels, so they use free solar energy instead of drawing power from the grid. In 2016, hardly any of these customers had batteries to store solar energy used at night. However, in the next few years, battery adoption increased, 13% of solar installations by 2023, and then soared to 38% last year. (i.e., of the 1,222 MW of solar that increased last year, 464 MW includes batteries.) This reduces the demand for the grid, as these customers can now use solar power at night.

Batteries can also help utilities get better returns on their investments in solar panels. A solar farm sells electricity during the day. However, if the battery is attached to the farm, it can also provide energy at night when electricity prices rise due to increased demand. “The battery contribution that night was the key to good economics,” said Jan Kleissl, director of the UC San Diego Center for Energy Research, who was not involved in the new paper.

Therefore, utilities are encouraged to invest in batteries, which also provides reliable backup power to avoid power outages. But like any technology, the battery can fail. Last week, a battery storage factory opened fire on the Central Coast of California, the largest of its kind in the world, but beat the state's only 2% of its energy storage capacity. A grid that operates fully on renewable energy will have a lot of redundancy built in, beyond multiple battery plants: electric school buses and other electric cars, for example, when utilities require it, electric school buses and other electric cars will start sending power back Power Grid – Potentially massive network backup energy.

But this is where economics becomes fashionable. The more renewable energy there is on the grid, the lower the electricity price tends to be. From October 1, 2023 to September 30, 2024, South Dakota, Montana and Iowa provide 110%, 87%, and 79% of electricity demand, especially wind and hydropower, respectively. Therefore, the electricity prices for these three people are the lowest.

California, on the other hand, received 47% of its power from renewable energy during the same period, but wildfires and other factors have translated into higher electricity prices. For example, the California Public Utilities Commission authorized its three largest utilities to collect $27 billion in wildfire prevention and insurance fees from taxpayers between 2019 and 2023.

Climate change makes California more and more likely to burn, which is an increasingly serious challenge for utilities. But the state’s banner on solar and batteries for a year just poked a lot of holes in the notion that renewable energy is unreliable.

Originally published by Grist, the story is part of Climate Now, a global news collaboration that enhances the reporting of climate stories.