The part of the year between the chill of winter and the heat of mid-summer tends to be when renewable energy systems perform best. Longer, milder days when electricity demand is relatively low are when wind and solar power are ramping up and can account for greater shares of grid energy consumption.
Clean energy set multiple records this spring. For all of May, solar power out-generated coal power, and sunshine was the third-biggest source of electricity in the country. Solar has been leading the country in new capacity construction for five years running, so each spring, the ever-larger solar fleet is doing more and more.
In California, clean energy broke lots of records. On the evening of March 29, batteries provided 44% of the electricity demand of the grid managed by the California Independent System Operator. So, the lack of sunshine did not result in fossil fuels taking over. California is also tapping more and more wind power for nighttime supply. On May 16, gas power plants never provided more than 3% of demand over the four-hour period after 7 pm.
New York State doesn’t have the battery banks that California has, but nonetheless set a new solar production record on June 3. At noon that day, solar power provided a record 29% of the state’s power.
This spring, Texas set pretty much every clean energy record there is. For example, wind and solar power provided a record 79% of the state’s demand on the afternoon of March 14.
The growing portfolio of clean energy sources has only begun to set records and power more and more of the electricity grid.
**********
References:
This spring, clean energy in the US set record after record
