California is on the cutting edge of a transformation in its electricity grid. Solar power in the state has grown tenfold since 2006 – presenting its power system with unprecedented challenges.
During sunny afternoons, California’s grid actually has a glut of energy generation. Conventional natural gas generators are shut down to make room for all the electricity coming from solar panels. This may seem like a good thing. But it takes too much time to bring the gas-fired plants back on line when they are needed at the end of the day. Electricity demand rises rapidly when people get home from work, presenting a thorny problem of supply and demand management.
As a result, the California Public Utilities Commission has mandated that utility companies install energy storage equipment. Usually, energy storage makes use of the output of solar systems on a delayed basis. In California, the idea is to keep gas-fired systems running while there is plenty of solar generation and store the output of the gas systems for use when the demand goes up in the evening.
To date, energy storage systems have been quite expensive and the economics have been difficult to manage. But with this mandated expansion of storage in California’s grid, the Public Utilities Commission anticipates cost reductions and increasing value for storage in all of its applications.
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Catching Rays in California, and Storing Them
Photo, taken on October 24, 2012, courtesy of the USFWS Pacific Southwest Region via Flickr.
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Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio. Support for Earth Wise comes from the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, NY.