Tag Archive for: california

Tesla’s virtual power plant (VPP) in California delivered 100 MW of power to help the grid not use gas peaker plants yesterday.

Tesla’s California virtual power plant delivers 100 MW to help the grid

Tesla’s virtual power plant (VPP) in California delivered 100 MW of power to help the grid not use gas peaker plants yesterday.

It’s peaker plant season in California. Heat waves are hitting the region, people are cranking up their ACs, and it is putting quite a load on the electrical grid.

Tesla has been using virtual power plants to aggregate its distributed energy systems, rooftop solar and Powerwall, to provide grid services and get more value for their customers.

Click here to read the full article
Source: electrek

—

If you have any questions or thoughts about the topic, feel free to contact us here or leave a comment below.

New study in the journal Risk Analysis finds that strategically placing resilience hubs in CA could generate up to 8GW of solar energy

New research shows that solar-powered ‘resilience hubs’ in California could generate up to 8GW of power

Power outages are on the rise nationwide as climate change brings more frequent wildfires, heat waves, and severe weather events. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the state of California have both recently established funding to help communities create “resilience hubs” that rely on solar+battery systems to provide emergency power for residents.

A new study in the journal Risk Analysis finds that strategically placing resilience hubs throughout California could generate up to 8 GW of solar energy and lower the state’s carbon emissions by 5 million tons per year.

Click here to read the full article
Source: Tech Xplore

—

If you have any questions or thoughts about the topic, feel free to contact us here or leave a comment below.

For part of almost every day this spring, California produced more electricity than it needed from renewable sources.

California is showing how a big state can power itself without fossil fuels

Something approaching a miracle has been taking place in California this spring. Beginning in early March, for some portion of almost every day, a combination of solar, wind, geothermal, and hydropower has been producing more than a hundred per cent of the state’s demand for electricity. Some afternoons, solar panels alone have produced more power than the state uses. And, at night, large utility-scale batteries that have been installed during the past few years are often the single largest source of supply to the grid—sending the excess power stored up during the afternoon back out to consumers across the state. It’s taken years of construction—and solid political leadership in Sacramento—to slowly build this wave, but all of a sudden it’s cresting into view. California has the fifth-largest economy in the world and, in the course of a few months, the state has proved that it’s possible to run a thriving modern economy on clean energy.

Click here to read the full article
Source: The New Yorker

—

If you have any questions or thoughts about the topic, feel free to contact us here or leave a comment below.

California is selected to receive $60M in federal funding as part of a significant effort to build a nationwide climate-ready workforce.

As Earth warms, California gets federal funding to train climate-ready workforce

California is among nine U.S. states and territories selected to receive $60 million in federal funding as part of a significant effort to build a nationwide climate-ready workforce.

The investment from the U.S. Department of Commerce and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will support job development efforts in coastal and Great Lakes communities around the country, including $9.5 million to establish the Los Angeles County Climate Ready Employment Council at Long Beach City College.

Click here to read the full article
Source: Los Angeles Times

—

If you have any questions or thoughts about the topic, feel free to contact us here or leave a comment below.

CAISO board approved a proposal to revamp the grid operator’s interconnection process, aiming to clear out a massive queue.

CAISO board approves ‘transformational’ grid interconnection reforms

The California Independent System Operator board on Wednesday approved a proposal to revamp the grid operator’s interconnection process, aiming to clear out a massive queue by favoring projects that it believes are most likely to succeed.

Under what it calls the “transformational reforms,” which federal regulators must approve, CAISO will assess three criteria — commercial interest, project viability and system need — when determining whether a project should move into the interconnection study phase, according to a CAISO staff memo to its board.

Click here to read the full article
Source: Utility Dive

—

If you have any questions or thoughts about the topic, feel free to contact us here or leave a comment below.

About 60% of customers have included battery energy storage with their rooftop solar installation, up from roughly 10% prior.

California is now a batteries-included rooftop solar market

California transitioned its rooftop solar policy on April 15, 2023, eliminated net energy metering (NEM) and moving toward a net billing tariff (NBT) structure. The change essentially cut the rate paid to customers for exporting their excess solar production to the grid by about 80%. On year later, Lawerence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) has released a report evaluating changes in the state’s rooftop solar market.

LNBL found that rooftop solar installations in California were roughly equal in 2023 to 2022. However, 80% of the systems installed were NEM 2.0 installations rushing into interconnection queues before the April 15, 2023 deadline to secure the more lucrative rate structure. To date, about 50,000 systems have been interconnected under the new NBT structure, in addition to 200,000 NEM systems interconnected over the same period.

Click here to read the full article
Source: PV Magazine

—

If you have any questions or thoughts about the topic, feel free to contact us here or leave a comment below.

 

In a major clean energy benchmark, wind, solar, and hydro exceeded 100% of demand on California’s main grid for 69 of the past 75 days.

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

In a major clean energy benchmark, wind, solar, and hydro exceeded 100% of demand on California’s main grid for 69 of the past 75 days.

May 21 update: Stanford University professor of civil and environmental engineering Mark Z. Jacobson continues to track California’s renewables performance – and it’s still exciting. In an update today on Twitter (X), Jacobson reports that California has now exceeded 100% of energy demand with renewables over a record 45 days straight, and 69 out of 75:

Click here to read the full article
Source: electrek

—

If you have any questions or thoughts about the topic, feel free to contact us here or leave a comment below.

Let’s make it easier and cheaper for farmers with dwindling water supplies to convert their lands to solar energy generation.

California farmers are low on water. Why not help them go solar?

It sounds like a climate solution everyone should be able to support: Let’s make it easier and cheaper for farmers with dwindling water supplies to convert their lands from crop production to solar energy generation, if that’s what those farmers want.

So what’s stopping such a bill from sailing through the California Legislature?

“Change can be difficult,” said Shannon Eddy, executive director of the Large-scale Solar Assn.

Tell me about it.

Even as coal, oil and gas combustion fuel an ever-deadlier rise in global temperatures, finding a spot to build a solar or wind farm where no one will object is damn near impossible. Some concerns are legitimate, such as safeguarding wildlife habitat and sacred Indigenous sites. Others, not so much. Take, for example, false claims that living near renewable energy projects can cause health problems — claims that have been spread by groups with ties to the fossil fuel industry, and by former President Trump.

Click here to read the full article
Source: Los Angeles Times

—

If you have any questions or thoughts about the topic, feel free to contact us here or leave a comment below.

In efforts to move towards using clean energy, Watt EV chose Bakersfield to launch their 115-acre electric truck charging depot.

Watt EV launches nation’s first solar-powered truck charging depot in Bakersfield

In efforts to move towards using clean energy, transportation service Watt EV chose Bakersfield to launch their 115-acre electric truck charging depot.

CEO and Co-founder Salim Youssefzadeh said this hub will pave the way for the future of transportation.

Youssefzadeh said, “Having electric truck stops along the way is definitely a step to reducing emissions, and we chose this site initially because it’s on the I-99 corridor and it caters to a lot of the distribution center around us.”

Click here to read the full article
Source: BakersfieldNow

—

If you have any questions or thoughts about the topic, feel free to contact us here or leave a comment below.

The Anaheim Transportation Network opened the first-of-its-kind, solar-powered charging facility in the county.

Anaheim’s resort-area buses get new solar-powered charging facility

The Anaheim Transportation Network, the transit agency that runs buses in the city’s resort district, on Friday opened the first-of-its-kind, solar-powered charging facility in the county to power its fleet of battery electric buses and vans.

The charging hub, located east of the 5 Freeway off of South Claudina Street, expands the agency’s ability to charge its electric vehicles as its leaders plan to buy more in the coming years.

“We’re extremely proud of it,” ATN CEO Diana Kotler said.

Click here to read the full article
Source: The Orange County Register

—

If you have any questions or thoughts about the topic, feel free to contact us here or leave a comment below.