this post was submitted on 22 Jul 2023
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Environment
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Are least in California, we have better ways of deploying solar that’s more economical. The issue of storage and transmission is a much bigger problem than generation.
We actually have too much solar sometimes. It’s quite counter intuitive. The grid is a fickle beast.
https://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/renewable/solar/california-has-too-much-solar-power/?amp=1
Not terribly counterintuitive, this has been a widely known issue with intermittent power sources since forever. They're often feast or famine power sources when the grid needs reliable, and power draw increases when people go home from work, which coincides with the time of day that solar output decreases. Generation is still a problem if we want to ramp up to it covering a majority of the grid, but you're right that storage is the more immediate problem