
Solar breaks 50% of California electricity for first time - jonbaer
https://electrek.co/2017/04/07/solar-power-breaks-50-of-california-demand-for-first-time-driving-negative-wholesale-electricity-rates/
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heisenbit
Impressive peak power however please look at the graph
[https://electrek.files.wordpress.com/2017/04/solar-eia-
calif...](https://electrek.files.wordpress.com/2017/04/solar-eia-california-
wholesale.png?w=1000&h=500). Eyeballing the area covered by solar is more
around 15-20% i.e. while during a good day 50% is covered by solar the overall
contribution is much less. Also note that peak demand was at 17:0-18:00 and
solar contributed almost nothing at that time.

Unless one can time-shift solar power in sufficient volume the benefits will
be limited.

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esturk
You're thinking of only 1 part of the solution. 'Energy storage' is a time
shift in providing power and that is solved by technological means. But
there's probably a simpler solution which of time-shift in "energy usage"
which can be accomplished via new business models.

There's untapped business potential to get people to use more power at peak
solar hours. For example, free drying in a laundromat with the accompany wash.
Low cost or free car charging during the day when shopping, etc.

There's a strange traditional dichotomy of having cheaper power after sunset
to not overlap with business usage. But with solar, we should rethink this and
have cheaper power BEFORE sunset.

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amluto
One neat property of solar is that a solar inverter can quickly and safely
turn down its output by moving its operating point away from the maximum power
point. Other generation technologies can have trouble with this. For example,
if you start extracting less power from your wind turbine, then it'll speed up
due to less resistance from the generator. (I assume you can mitigate this to
some extent by adjusting blade pitch.)

It'll be interesting to see of the grid eventually starts giving solar
operators a way to get paid to produce _less_ power when needed.

Another neat way to soak up excess capacity would be desalination. Build a big
plant and run it when power is cheap or free and store the fresh water that's
produced.

~~~
samcheng
Wind power is frequently curtailed. All commercial/utility scale wind turbines
can control blade pitch, and all but the smallest residential-scale wind power
have braking systems to prevent runaways. Controlling blade pitch is also
important for maximum efficiency at regular wind speeds.

Safe curtailment is particularly important for wind power, because storms
carry two orders of magnitude more wind energy than a light breeze. Solar
doesn't vary that much from day to day.

Ideally, though, rather than curtailment, we'd have enough dispatchable demand
to soak up all of that free energy. Hopefully, soon it'll be a bunch of
internet-connected lithium-ion batteries.

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11thEarlOfMar
Don't know where I've been... There is still a nuclear power plant operating
in California, looks like it produces 2GWh:

"The Diablo Canyon nuclear plant, built against a seaside cliff near Avila
Beach, provides 2,160 megawatts of electricity for Central and Northern
California — enough to power more than 1.7 million homes."

About 12 identical plants could produce the electricity California consumes.
Well... Until everyone starts driving electric cars.

[http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-diablo-canyon-
nuclear-...](http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-diablo-canyon-
nuclear-20160621-snap-story.html)

