As Matt Simon writes in Grist one of the most commonly heard statements about renewable energy is that it isn’t reliable. He goes on to confirm that yes, the “sun sets every night and winds calm down, putting solar panels and turbines to sleep.” Yet increasingly, when the renewable energy is incoming, when the sun is shining or the wind blowing, “they’re providing the grid with electricity and charging banks of batteries, which then supply power at night.”
The reliability of renewables has been confirmed in a recent “study in the journal Renewable Energy that looked at California’s deployment of renewable power highlights just how reliable the future of energy might be. It found that last year, from late winter to early summer, renewables fulfilled 100 percent of the state’s electricity demand for up to 10 hours on 98 of 116 days, a record for California. Not only were there no blackouts during that time, thanks in part to backup battery power, but at their peak the renewables provided up to 162 percent of the grid’s needs — adding extra electricity California could export to neighboring states or use to fill batteries.”
Another myth is that as we electrify many more aspects of our lives – everything from trading gas cars for EVs or gas stoves for induction ones – the grid won’t have enough power to support the higher load. But again California has solid evidence to bust the myth – “Between 2023 and 2024, demand on the state’s grid during the study period actually dropped by about 1 percent.”
This could be partly “because some customers installed their own solar panels, using that free solar energy instead of drawing power from the grid.” However few of those customers had batteries in 2016 whereas in 2023 this rose to 13% of buildings and in 2024 to 38%. This reduces demand on the grid “because those customers can now use their solar power at night.”
With increasing reliability and consistently some of the cheapest energy in many jurisdictions, renewables are here to stay as a viable alternative to fossil fuels.
From “The Daily Difference” 2/25/25 by the Carbon Almanac. To read more or subscribe click HERE.
