California Sets New Solar Production Record

Posted by: JackSawyer // Student

California continues to make tremendous progress towards harnessing 50% of it's energy from renewable sources by 2030, and news coming out this week reinforces that, as the state has managed to set a new record for solar electric production - 8 gigawatts. That is double of what the state was producing from solar just two years ago.

More and more utility companies in California are installing solar photovoltaic grids as the state mandate and allure of successful business begins to fall into place. Not only has solar began to eclipse the price of oil, but we are also seeing major breakthroughs in the technology on a consistent basis. These factors have helped reduce the risk involved with solar and, subsequently, companies have seized the opportunity to be on the forefront of a market set to explode. Cheaper solar has helped grow and expand the technology and California has taken advantage of this. Cal ISO said that the new record was broken when solar "and wind renewable generation combined to provide 29 percent of the state’s total electric needs at Tuesday’s system peak, which was at 5:40 p.m." (). This is a great achievement for the state and country! With the way the way things are going, we could see California achieving its goal of 50% earlier than targeted as we still have 14 years and solar currently fits an exponential curve.

Do you see California achieving its goal? In many ways we can see California as piloting the first major economy to transitioning to clean energy, if they are successful do you think other states will follow quickly?

Anderson, Mark. "Massive Solar Farms Drive California to Record in Solar Generation." Widgets RSS. Sacramento Business Journal, 15 July 2016. Web. 16 July 2016. <http://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/news/2016/07/15/massive-solar-farms-drive-california-to-record-in.html>.