In California, where lots of electricity comes from sunlight, having too much power is a big problem. The Washington Post says that on sunny days, there’s more solar energy than needed, so electricity prices drop. People who manage the electricity system have a tough job because solar power isn’t as easy to control as other kinds of energy like coal or gas.
“These are not insurmountable challenges,” Michelle Davis at consulting firm Wood Mackenzie Power and Renewables, told the WaPo. “But they are challenges that a lot of grid operators have never had to deal with.”
This makes it hard to manage the electricity system, especially when there’s a lot of solar power. They call the leftover demand after using solar energy the “net load,” which is the total demand for electricity minus the energy supplied by solar and other renewables. This creates a “duck curve” where solar power peaks during the day, especially in spring when it’s not too hot or cold.
“We drastically underestimated the speed at which residential solar was going to come in,” Clyde Loutan, principal for renewable energy integration at CAISO, told the WaPo.
More and more homes are getting solar panels, which is good for renewable energy, but it’s making the extra power problem worse. Even though solar power is good, a lot of it doesn’t get used, which means we’re losing money. In 2022, The Washington Post said that most of the wasted electricity in California was from solar power, which might raise electricity prices later.
To fix the problem, California is doing things like giving fewer rewards to people with solar panels, which some people don’t like. But they’re also trying other ideas, like selling extra power to nearby states. The real answer might be using batteries to store extra solar energy for when we need it at night, so we don’t have to rely on other kinds of fuel.
Basically, even though there’s a lot of sunlight in California, it’s causing problems that need smart fixes. People who manage the electricity system, lawmakers, and people who like renewable energy all need to work together to find solutions. By using batteries and making good rules, California can use its sunlight power while avoiding problems with too much electricity.
