This State Set the Record by Powering 6 Million Homes with Solar Energy
California is taking the lead on solar and renewable energy, requiring that 33 percent of electricity come from the sun and wind by 2020. This will up to 50 percent in 2050 in an effort to save resources and better the environment by reducing the need for fossil fuels. This was put into effect by California governor Jerry Brown, who signed the bill in 2015. [1]
Due to a recent heatwave on July 12, 2016, the solar power plants across the state were able to produce a record 8,030 megawatts of electricity around 1:06pm. This is enough energy to power 6 million homes in the Golden (and most populous) state. This is double what was produced in May.
This is also nearly twice as much solar power as the state was able to produce just two years ago, and it doesn’t even include the small rooftop and solar arrays on private homes and businesses statewide.
However, the shift to renewable energy isn’t always easy, as the sun obviously doesn’t shine 24 hours a day. Likewise, the wind isn’t always blowing, making it difficult to capture solar energy every day of the year.
One of the major issues is that solar power often peaks midday, when there isn’t as much of a demand for electricity and energy. The wind power picks up the slack at night, but often not until quite late. This leaves a bit of a lapse, especially because the biggest demand for solar power is around 6pm when families are returning home from work and school, just as the sun is setting.
Read: Whole Foods to Install Solar Units at up to 200 Of Its Stores
The state has to rely on plants that burn natural gas, while trying to create incentives to get people to stop using electricity during the hours in the day when it is most precious.
California’s Pacific Gas and Electric sometimes asks people to power down their devices or turn off their lights during the time when electricity is most precious. But PG&E has entered the 21st century, with 30 percent of its electricity coming from renewable sources. They hope to have 33 percent by the end of this year and 55 percent by 2031.
Because of all of the renewable options, PG&E will close Diablo Canyon, the last nuclear plant in the state, in 2025. [2]
Sources:
[1] Huffington Post
[2] SF Gate
Dezember 6, 2014 German Renewable Energy Keeps Blacking Out! Supply Often Less Than 2% Of Wintertime Demand
Prof. Fritz Vahrenholt, who forcefully conveyed the folly of Germany’s mad rush into renewable energy, and the country’s hysterical obsession with its suicidal fast-track shutdown of its stable base-electric-power generation.
01.06.2016 Author: F. William Engdahl Saudis Have Lost the Oil War
Poor Saudi Arabia. They don’t realize it yet but they have lost their oil war. The war in its current phase began in September, 2014, when the dying King Abdullah and his Minister of Petroleum, Ali Al-Naimi, told US Secretary of State John Kerry they would gladly join Washington in plunging world oil prices. It became clear the main Saudi motive was to eliminate the new growing challenge to their control of world oil markets by forcing prices so low that the US shale oil industry would soon go bankrupt. For Kerry and Washington the focus, of course, was to economically cripple Russia in the wake of new US sanctions by damaging their revenues from export of oil. Neither achieved their aim.
April 29, 2015 Energy superpower ‘Saudi America’ has been the world’s largest petroleum producer for 26 months in a row
For the 26th month in a row starting in November 2012, “Saudi America” took the top spot again last December as the No. 1 petroleum producer in the world. Also, for the 26th straight month, total petroleum production (crude oil and other petroleum products like natural gas plant liquids, lease condensate, and refined petroleum products) in the US during the month of December at 14.83 million barrels per day (red line in chart) exceeded petroleum production in No. 2 Saudi Arabia (11.52 million barrels per day, see red line in chart).