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California exceeds 100% of energy demand with renewables over a record 30 days

electrek.co

61–70 of 162 posts

Re: California exceeds 100% of energy demand with renewables over a record 30 days

#61
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But the government is closing down the nuclear power stations so we'll be back to gas and coal soon enough!

Why is that a concern if already over 66% of energy is made of renewable sources?

Nuclear helps to reliably produce electricity when there is a peak demand or renewable has a problem producing (no sun, draught)

Re: California exceeds 100% of energy demand with renewables over a record 30 days

#62
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you, as a German paying absurd electricity prices I applaud this nuance.

I'd like to thanks the German government's policies for the past decades for making me pay absurd electricity prices since the Russian invasion started, even though I live in Sweden with 90+% of renewable electricity generation I'm forced to pay the highest spot price in the EU (aka, gas in Germany) because of Germany's decision to burn coal and gas all the way into 2022... The inertia on modernising Germany is start…

> I'm forced to pay the highest spot price in the EU

This isn't true — prices are the same throughout a zone, but Germany and Sweden are not in the same zone. Sweden has several zones. The total possibly export from Sweden to neighbouring countries is not unlimited, which is the reason for the boundaries.

https://www.nordpoolgroup.com/en/the-power-market/Bidding-ar...

Re: California exceeds 100% of energy demand with renewables over a record 30 days

#63
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you, as a German paying absurd electricity prices I applaud this nuance.

I'd like to thanks the German government's policies for the past decades for making me pay absurd electricity prices since the Russian invasion started, even though I live in Sweden with 90+% of renewable electricity generation I'm forced to pay the highest spot price in the EU (aka, gas in Germany) because of Germany's decision to burn coal and gas all the way into 2022... The inertia on modernising Germany is start…

> I live in Sweden with 90+% of renewable electricity generation

Except sweden isn't self sufficient at all with electricity… Can I really say that I'm 100% renewable if I have a tiny solar panel at home, and for the rest I use power from somewhere else?

Re: California exceeds 100% of energy demand with renewables over a record 30 days

#64
post #9

Spain as a whole 45 million country with diverse geography and scattered population is producing 75 percent of its electricity from renewables and gas and carbon have been down to almost technical zero. It's rained a lot over the last month's and water reservoirs are used as battery. I made a website to track this: https://energy.antizone.online During the day, a huge chunk of the produced energy is sold to other cou…

https://brisk.news/read/articles:ykn94y0xr6ex9zt66zfs

Re: California exceeds 100% of energy demand with renewables over a record 30 days

#65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> makes most of this irrelevant. We do export a ridiculous amount of food and green technologies. > and actually stopping climate change requires changing the industrialization trajectories of many non-western countries. So.. colonialism by a new name. I had really hoped we grew out of this by now.

Industrial emission of CO2 is the main factor; there's not much deindustrializing economies can do beyond deindustrailizing. And, of course, pat themselves on the back as they do so. There's zero economic, social or political cost to western policies at the moment and they arent reducing CO2 emissions. It's very much "green theatre". The goal is to stop the actual levels of Co2 ppm from rising. This is all fairly mea…

In particular when more of that green energy is going to be used on bigger EVs, more aircon, more screens, etc. Western countries are unlikely to reduce their overall energy demand, in which we should account for the one necessary for producing the imported goods.

That said, opening solar farms to shut down coal plants is a net good regardless.

Re: California exceeds 100% of energy demand with renewables over a record 30 days

#66
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But the government is closing down the nuclear power stations so we'll be back to gas and coal soon enough!

Why is that a concern if already over 66% of energy is made of renewable sources?

security e.g. massive sandstorm from Sahara blocking a lot of solar

Re: California exceeds 100% of energy demand with renewables over a record 30 days

#67
post #61
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is that a concern if already over 66% of energy is made of renewable sources?

Nuclear helps to reliably produce electricity when there is a peak demand or renewable has a problem producing (no sun, draught)

There is no need for backup fossil power to account for more than a few percent of electricity production in the medium term.

https://www.volts.wtf/p/what-the-sun-isnt-always-shining

Re: California exceeds 100% of energy demand with renewables over a record 30 days

#68
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's rained a lot over the last month's and water reservoirs are used as battery. IN PARTS of the country. In other regions (Catalunya, Andalucia) there is an ongoing drought which is severely impacting everyone and yeah, hydro-electrical companies had done some, let say questionable decisions regarding their water reservoirs.

it's easier to move power than water :-) So as long as it's rained a lot somewhere, that can be used as a battery. Most hydro power plants are not in Catalonia or Andalusia ( https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?mid=1jVN1LmOoTTqg3e... )

I'm not saying that water should not be used as a battery. I'm just saying that there is a very serious water crisis in big places in Spain, and to make the people not very familiar with Spain about the difference in weather and climate that exists within the country. Basically, the parts near the Atlantic ocean are always very rainy, and this year some other zone with no sea got a lot of rain, but the Mediterranean coasts have really low raining in general, and in recent years the situation worsened even more.

Re: California exceeds 100% of energy demand with renewables over a record 30 days

#70
post #5

For a few minutes at low demand time. These kinds of over-grand claims are seriously harmful to the cause of promoting renewables because it makes it seem like we’re almost there and can stop caring. Just look at the excellent, accurate, and up-to-the-hour charts put out by the electricity market itself and you will see where and when the challenges we face still are. https://www.caiso.com/TodaysOutlook/Pages/supply.…

This is incorrect. It is not for a few minutes! We are way way past that at this point. The renewable generation meeting the total demand is over most of the day. Because of solar PV, the cheapest generation now, the daytime electricity supply is actually more than we need in California. Solar farms (and also wind farms)get curtailed here due to supplying more than the grid can take at times; this is usually for seve…

And given the incoming tidal wave of DER and cheaper storage that curtailment will stop I bet

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distributed_generation

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