https://cleantechnica.com/2024/06/02/solar-passes-100-of-power-demand-in-california/ Sorry, copy-paste doesn't render the various graphs shown in the article so I only have the link this time.
Been off grid for years in the mountains of socal, 800w panels, batteries, inverter, charge controllers. Basically a giant version of an RV dry camp setup. Only time it gets sketchy is in winter, after a week of clouds. The weather here makes it work. Far more cost effective and trouble free than any kind of wind system I ever tried!
During 2022, solar and wind accounted for 27% of the electric power mix; for comparison, nuclear+hydro was 18%. Still quite a ways to go. And then, this is in the greenest and richest state in the world’s richest country. Good luck replicating even this middling success on a global scale on any timeframe short enough to matter. As an aside, meeting climate goals would be easier for California if nuclear gen hadn’t been cut in half from 2009 to 2022.
2022 data? Things move quickly in the green energy space. There are nearly a dozen smaller countries that are today on 100% green energy, like Portugal, Costa Rica, A couple Scandinavian nations... And several large countries that are at or near 50% renewables.
Yeah so much power in California, so why does the price of electricity go up every few months? My bill went from $50 in May 2017 to $200 last month. Newsom's cronies at the CPUC rubber stamp every rate hike for a shit company like PG&E.
Different subject, but yeah I agree with you. PG&E is one of those "too big to fail" northern CA company with 12000 union workers making well above average pay in high paying California. In effect, you're subsidizing union labor so they can live middle class lives in expensive greater Bay Area. But the problem is much worse than that and crosses into all union dominated industries. Insurance companies are pulling out of Northern California because fires have become too common in suburbs expending into grass land. One of the major guilty party is PG&E with its power lines dangling in the wind during dry seasons. Everyone there pretends there's nothing that can done about it, even though it's bull. But the solution is expensive and the consequence would lead to loss of union jobs and loss of revenue stream. The solution comes from Europe where nearly all local power lines are underground. Trenching is the solution! But that's not PG&E's forte; they like poles. And anyone's who has ever tried to stir union labor to do something that's not negotiated knows how difficult the way forward is (Ford, GM?). Of course, unions won't allow private businesses to bid for trenching at half the price. They'll want retraining from pole climber to trench digger and add new workers and increase pay while we're at it, to make up for the trauma caused by this transition. Once cables are underground, there's far less maintenance involved, meaning less labor required. Good for the employer, bad for the union. Also, poles are a source of income for the company. Anyone wishing to tie up to the poles (like cable companies) have to pay a leasing fee. No poles, no fees. As a result, nothing changes. PG&E pays millions in fines to the government, or rather, consumers pay millions in fines to the government via increased rates. It cannot go out of business, providing a key service to the region, so they ask for and receive approval to raise rates again. This is a triangular scam, where government is supported and elected by the large union groups. Union labor is paid middle class income in jobs that could be done for half the cost, and white collar employers are getting fat pay packages in an uncompetitive environment. Consumers are the only ones getting fkd paying increasingly exorbitant electricity bills.
First of all, the stories that “country XYZ ran on renewable energy for 8 days straight!!!” are a far cry from “100% green energy”. E.g last year Portugal obtained 32% of its electricity (not total energy) from wind and solar, 6% from “biomass” (burning trees) and 23% from hydro, which is both fully exploited and doesn’t suffer from intermittency issues. 32% is impressive, but like I said, there is still a ways to go. That’s even more true when you look at a global scale, where moderate increases in renewables in places like Portugal are swamped many times over by skyrocketing fossil-fuel emissions in Asia. Global coal consumption, for instance, is at an all-time record high. And God help us if the Africans ever climb out of abject poverty to the point where they can afford chainsaws and electricity. My view is essentially that all this (deploying solar in Portugal, or churning out EVs etc) is rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, as actual no-bullshit global-level emissions reduction to “net zero” entails a vast compression in living standards that nobody will willingly accept. Even in Europe you are seeing a political revolt, and they haven’t gotten to the hard part.
Ok, not 100%. But not 32% either: "Renewable generation supplied 61% of the electricity consumption in Portugal in 2023, totalling 31.2 TWh, the highest-ever recorded value in the Portuguese national system. Wind power supplied 25% of the consumption in Portugal, hydropower contributed 23%, photovoltaics accounted for 7% and biomass for 6%." www.ren.pt And yes, Costa Rica is 100%: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_renewable_electricity_production
%% Sounds like the nuke cut was a bad idea. But actually it could work in CA\they had so many leave,power demand could be waaaaaaaaaaaaaay down. And CA could repeat the pattern ''please dont charge your EVs'' so that could help some with IC engines. I had power lines buried on my property, looks very good but very expensive+ i dont live in any earthquake zone.