This Chart Shows How California Is Massively Extending Solar Use Into The Evening

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As photo voltaic vitality turned a bigger and bigger portion of California electrical energy era, there have been rising issues in regards to the notorious “duck curve.” Photo voltaic vitality was beginning to dominate noon electrical energy era, forcing curtailments even, whereas peak electrical energy demand within the night was a tad too late for photo voltaic to be useful.

The core resolution, after all, was for batteries to come back in and take in further noon electrical energy era after which disperse it within the night. Thus, California has put in a whole lot of battery storage on the grid prior to now few years.

Wanting via the new International Energy Agency (IEA) report I wrote in regards to the different day (see: “Interesting Chart: How Much Solar or Wind Dominate Renewable Energy in Different Countries“), I ran throughout a chart demonstrating how nicely that is now working in California. Right here’s the chart:

“Several countries already have battery storage or plan to have in the coming years. In Californiabatteries reached a record power discharge of 7 GW on 30 April 2024, meeting about 33% of net load peak, contributing significantly on top of imports and natural gas. In Italy, the National Climate and Energy Plan relies on batteries to meet decarbonisation targets for 2030. While batteries accounted for 2.3 GW in 2023, these were spread across 300 000 installations. Italy aims for 15 GW of battery capacity by 2030with 11 GW of utility-scale installations,” the IEA writes.

“EVs are increasingly contributing to flexibility as well, relying on smart charging technologies that are currently being deployed at scale. VRE generators themselves can also contribute to balancing services. For example, in Spain, more than 60% of installed wind capacity and about a quarter of installed PV capacity participate in frequency regulation services in the minutes timeframe, accounting for more than 35% of the energy allocated in these balancing markets.”

We’ll come to a few of these different subjects later, however it’s really beautiful to see how a lot battery storage is already serving to to combine extra solar energy in The Golden State. If you happen to recall from that different article a few days in the past, solar PV has reached 20% of California’s electricity supply. It has the potential to succeed in a. a lot greater share, and if you concentrate on doubling it to 40%, you possibly can think about doubling (or, truly, greater than doubling) battery storage and spreading that electrical energy out throughout extra hours of the day and night time to just about wipe pure gasoline off the chart. Wouldn’t that be good!

As famous above, there are additionally different options to assist use and combine extra renewable vitality whereas avoiding curtailment at occasions of excessive manufacturing. Right here’s a desk of choices from the IEA report:

Maybe we’ll dive into a few of these different choices and the instances research highlighted within the IEA report.