QUICK NEWS, September 11: It’s Official. California Says Yes To 100% New Energy; The Solution For California’s 100% New Energy Goal
It’s Official. California Says Yes To 100% New Energy. Gov. Brown’s new climate goal: less than zero global warming emissions
David R. Baker, September 10. 2018 (San Francisco Chronicle)
Gov. Jerry Brown has repeatedly ratcheted up California’s global warming goals, setting ever-higher targets for the use of renewable power and demanding deeper cuts in greenhouse gas emissions…[But now he has] announced a climate goal so ambitious that many experts don’t know how to reach it…[An Executive Order calls for removing emissions from the atmosphere after 2045 and SB 100] calls for 100 percent of the state’s electricity to come from carbon-free sources by 2045…[Brown said] California’s new goals show its commitment to the landmark 2015 international Paris Agreement on climate change, despite the Trump administration’s opposition…[But] experts warn that reaching 100 percent clean energy at a cost consumers can afford will require better and cheaper ways to store large amounts of electricity. “…[R]emoving carbon from the atmosphere en masse is a far more daunting task. While several technologies have been explored — incorporating carbon dioxide into concrete, using ocean algae blooms to absorb the gas — none has been deployed at scale.
The California Air Resources Board, which runs most of the state’s global warming programs, calls for sequestering 5 million metric tons of carbon per year through protecting, managing and expanding forests…[In 2016,] the state’s economy emitted 429.4 million metric tons of greenhouse gases…And wildfires can pump so much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere that a single large blaze can wipe out the state’s success in trimming emissions for that entire year…Although the technology exists to trap and store emissions, an idea called carbon capture and storage, it is considered far too expensive for widespread deployment…” click here for more
The Solution For California’s 100% New Energy Goal Why 100 Percent Clean Energy in California is Gonna Be Tricky
Lauren Sommer, September 10, 2018 (KQED)
“…[For the fifth largest economy in the world, getting to 100% New Energy means] a wholesale transformation…If the past is any precedent, it's going to be difficult…[To now,] renewable energy has created new challenges for running the state’s electric grid. And grid operators have turned to California’s primary fossil fuel resource, large natural-gas power plants, to solve them…That’s created an uncomfortable marriage between renewable energy and fossil fuels. And it’s one that California policymakers will have to figure out how to dissolve, if the state wants to reach its clean energy targets…Today, solar and wind are [cost] competitive with natural gas power…[and] about a third of California’s electricity comes from renewables, including solar, wind, geothermal, biomass and small hydropower dams…But electricity from natural gas has also held steady. In 2017, it represented more than 40 percent of California’s in-state generation…
[S]olar energy has fundamentally shifted the way the state’s electric grid is run…[R]unning solar and natural gas together during the day can create more electricity than is needed…[Most natural gas plants cannot turn on and off quickly or easily, so] grid operators have to tell solar farms to shut off. And it’s happening more and more often…[The extra solar energy could be stored and used as part of a large portfolio of New Energies] or it could be shared with neighboring states…[California does not have a regional grid to export the solar and energy storage capacity is just beginning to be] developed…But the rise in solar power has upended the economic model for many natural gas plants in California…[To keep the necessary natural gas generation in place until solutions are ready,] there needs to be a careful exit strategy for natural gas…[The good news] is that the state has met every one of its renewable energy goals.” click here for more
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