In a historic first for California, renewable energy has supplied 100% of the state’s energy demand for 25 out of the last 32 days — and counting.
Each day for the last month or so, the state’s grid has been powered completely by renewables from periods of time ranging from 15 minutes to six hours.
Nearly every day, solar, wind, and hydro have been producing more energy than residents need. While California has achieved 100% renewable energy before, this is the first time that wind, solar, and hydro have performed consistently over several days.
This data comes from Mark Z. Jacobson, a civil and environmental engineering professor at Stanford University. Jacobson updates his X (formerly known as Twitter) page whenever California reaches a record, which has been happening almost daily over the past month.
“This is getting so easy, it’s almost boring,” he wrote on LinkedIn.
The Golden State’s official goal is to run solely on renewables by 2045. However, Jacobson believes it will happen by 2035, according to The Cool Down.
“In 2009, when we first proposed 100% [WindWaterSolar], the utilities and naysayers claimed the grid would go unstable with more than 20 per cent renewable energy, with no evidence,” Jacobson wrote on X. “In 2017, they claimed, with no evidence, a limit of 80 per cent. In 2020, they claimed 90%, then 95%. Now 100% WWS is here to stay.”
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