A System To Better Use New Energy

How California Can Avoid Throwing Away Solar Energy

Ralph Cavanaugh, March 22, 2017 (National Resources Defense Council)

“…[The operator for most of the California grid is] experiencing conditions where it must throttle down [solar power plants] on sunny afternoons and warns of much more to come…The California Independent System Operator (CAISO) isn’t anti-solar; turning off renewable generation is a last resort…[But at some times there is not enough electricity demand within the state to absorb…[the New Energy output from its solar,] wind, geothermal, and hydropower…

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[The] western grid as a whole has more than three times California’s power needs, and tens of thousands of megawatts of polluting fossil power generation…[which costs substantially more than California’s solar plants and could be replaced by] solar energy that’s being thrown away…By integrating our western power grid – including the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest, and California, as well as western Canada and Mexico – we could reduce greenhouse gas emissions and energy costs for consumers, while increasing reliability…” click here for more

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