Are renewables reliable? A new study says California ran on renewables alone for a record number of days last year.

One of the biggest myths about renewable energy is that it isn’t reliable. Sure, the sun sets every night and winds calm down, putting solar panels and turbines to sleep. But when those renewables are humming, they’re providing the grid with electricity and charging banks of batteries, which then supply power at night.

A new 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.

  • PlzGivHugs@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    13·
    6 days ago

    Ah, yes. Thank you for proving solar and wind are reliable. I’m sure the performance will be completely identical here in Canada where it’s been dim and overcast for the last two weeks and everything is coated in 6 inches of ice and 30 more of snow.

    I’m obviously being facetious, but this is a really terrible headline. Renewables have an important place, but using best-case and saying that debunks the idea that they’re unreliable is ridiculous.

    Edit: I’m not against renewables, even in colder climates. I’m just mocking the headline itself for its line of logic.

    • Steve@slrpnk.netOPM
      11·
      6 days ago

      Beyond simply the headline, the first two paragraphs from the article directly address this and site their source ( mentioned quoted above ) which further addresses the issue you are mentioning.

    • astrsk@fedia.io
      7·
      6 days ago

      Just as people can get sunburns in overcast skies, solar still works as a net positive energy collection system when scaled correctly. This is why locations with more frequent inclement weather tend to have larger battery stores because even if you only get 0.5kwh from an overcast day, you’re still offsetting that much power use from the grid and over time, it adds up, while the good days help offset the bad days in terms of energy collection so long as you have the storage capabilities.

      The primary problem with almost all power systems is how to reliably store as much of that energy as possible given a variable rate of load.