On Saturday, California met its 100 percent renewable energy goal, much of it came from large amounts of solar power now produced along Interstate 10, an hour east of the Coachella Valley.
According to the Desert Sun:
While partygoers celebrated in the blazing sunshine at the Stagecoach music festival, energy demand statewide hit 18,672 megawatts at 2:45 p.m., and a whopping 37,172 megawatts were available to meet it. Of the demand, a whopping 101% of the power provided came from renewables, according to a continuous tracker provided by California Independent System Operator, or CAISO, a nonprofit that oversees the state’s bulk electric power system and transmission lines.
Two thirds of the 18,000 megawatts needed was provided by solar power loaded into the energy grid — or 12,391 megawatts. The rest came from wind, geothermal and other renewable sources. The milestone lasted almost 15 minutes before edging back down to about 97 percent renewables.
Laura Deehan, executive director for Environment California expressed her excitement but also said that more needs to be done, especially at the federal level.
“Despite incredible progress illustrated by the milestone this weekend, a baffling regulatory misstep by the Biden administration has advocates concerned about backsliding on California’s clean energy targets.
They said an inquiry into tariffs on imported solar panels by the Department of Commerce is delaying thousands of megawatts of solar-plus-storage projects in California, ” major disruption that Governor Newsom called ‘one of the biggest stories in the country.’”
