Because “I don’t care who you are! That’s funny right there!” by David Middleton
Solar power delivers more electricity than Californians can use from 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM and very little at before 9:00 AM and after 4:00 PM.
So CAISO has to shut in some solar power generation during the peak solar resource period of the day. The more solar power they add to the grid, the more they have to curtail…
AUGUST 24, 2021
California’s curtailments of solar electricity generation continue to increaseCurtailments of solar-powered electricity generation have increased in the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) region, the part of the electric grid that covers most of the state. In 2020, CAISO curtailed 1.5 million megawatthours of utility-scale solar, or 5% of its utility-scale solar production.
Grid operators curtail electricity production from solar and wind generators when supply exceeds demand. In 2020, solar curtailments accounted for 94% of the total energy curtailed in CAISO. Solar curtailments tend to be greater in the spring months when electricity demand is relatively low (because of moderate temperatures decreasing heating and cooling demand) and solar output is relatively high. In the early afternoon hours of March 2021, CAISO curtailed an average of 15% of its utility-scale solar output.
[…]
Principal contributor: Lori Aniti
EIA
Meanwhile, sanity makes a rare appearance in California
California to open 5 natural gas plants to avoid blackouts
by Shelby Bracho, Friday, August 20th 2021California officials say five temporary gas-fueled generators will be set up around existing power plants throughout the state to avoid blackouts and boos the state’s grid.
This is a move in the opposite direction from California’s big push toward “green” renewable energy.
“We cannot keep the lights on without additional natural gas and the state’s been forced to go out and find it in an emergency situation,” said Assemblymember Jim Patterson.
Hopefully, this means no more flex alerts and rolling blackouts for people here in the Central Valley and across the state.
[…]
With a current price tag of $171.5 million, each unit will produce about 30 MW of power for a total of 150 MW powered by natural gas.
“Natural gas, you can turn it on when you need it, you can use it at any time of the day or night, it is readily available, it is relatively affordable and it burns relatively cleanly,” said Assemblymember Patterson, “California has been forced to do this because we now have growing demand on a grid that has flattening supplies and that has caused these flex alerts.”
DWR says the units will have the capability of running on an up to 75% hydrogen blend in the future, depending on hydrogen availability.
“So we’ll meet our current needs, and you know, we’ll have the capability to utilize in future fuel blends of hydrogen as we move forward in our clean energy goals,” said Ted Craddock, Deputy Director of the State Water Project with the DWR.
“My hunch is that this is not going to be temporary, my hunch is that this will be 150 MW that will be essential and necessary for a long time to come,” said Assemblymember Patterson.
[…]
Fox26News
Was this a typo?
California officials say five temporary gas-fueled generators will be set up around existing power plants throughout the state to avoid blackouts and boos the state’s grid.
Or will the “gas-fueled generators” literally boo “the state’s grid”?
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Winner! Give that man a seegar!
the fact is, you never can cut down the solar power !when sunshine, the electrical potential difference appears.
These will be a minor help with only 150 mw capacity. CA already has 80 gas peaker plants, totaling 17,300 mw.
see https://www.psehealthyenergy.org
Daily peak demand can hit 35,000 mw,
see https://www.caiso.com/TodaysOutlook/Pages/index.html
So an added 150 mw is about 0.4 percent of demand.
These 5 peakers may help the local power demand if they are far from the other gas power plants.
I’m more concerned about where the replacement power comes from when PGE shuts down the Diablo nuc., which generates 2,200 mw
The socialist mindset and worldview is born in a person when they think they can ignore and deny reality to such an extent they can live in a new world that progresses towards Utopia. But that Utopia cannot exist in the present world. The inflection point comes when reality either prevails or the socialist attempts to force Utopia to be imposed irrespective of the cost. As many climate rationalists have always said, intermittent solar and wind power must have parallel backup power and that cost must be accounted for when weighing the cost of green power. And guess who pays when the dream proves to be unsustainable? The customer and the taxpayer, most often one and the same person.
Well, gee, how very thoughtful of California to add gas-powered generators to its grid. I was getting worried there that the people there might have to go back to oil lamps and wood-fired stoves for lighting and cooking. <- sarc
It’s kind of strange to see such things coming up in the Real World. Now if they’d just clean up the mess that has become San Francisco….
Caliphonia is increasingly the Rube Goldberg of states.
Lithium batteries make some sense in mobile applications because lithium is the lightest solid element.
But why are we concerned with light weight for grid scale batteries?
Why not use the cheapest, more abundant elements? Weight would be an advantage. Discourage theft.
It just ain’t working – https://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/german-failure-on-the-road-to-a-renewable-future-a-1266586.html
Does anyone know what happened to the concept of having large superconducting power storage rings/toroids? We were studying these for ground based laser power during the Strategic Defense Initiative. I recall there were some FAA issues with the extended magnetic fields, but progress was being made.
I wonder if anyone has given thought to the impact of the magnetic fields from tokamaks?
Hey you could use the same model in your home.. solar when the sun is shining and burn natural gas through a mirco-turbine to push a generator, (when the sun isn’t shining) while heating water and your house. An even more efficient system would use the dang futuristic BATTERY, (that does not exit…. closest thing is a superconductive magnetic energy storage system…. still too costly for home use). The problem with California is grid grid grid/utility. It always has been. No one other than the tax/vote hungry will be excited about non-hydrocarbon grid solutions, when hydrocarbon fuel is plentiful and affordable. As a home owner, there is no incentive to invest in high tech off grid solutions…the cost is contained…. no big margin to benefit from. Yet. if I wanted to do a green house. or hydroponics, or raise fish..etc…. even at these microeconomies of scale, I don’t get a very big bang for my grid electrify buck…. .this is where off grid solutions become profitable as long as my state hasn’t passed the carbon tax/Ban off grid legislation. These states have passed carbon taxes and ban off grid: California and the eleven Northeast states — Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Virginia — that make up the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI).
Actually, 30 MW is rather small for a natural-gas-fueled generator. Most of the gas turbines used in commercial gas-fired power plants can produce between 200 and 250 MW, and most large power plants have several of them in parallel, which can be started and shut down in response to changes in demand.
If California truly wanted to reduce emissions, it would build more, larger natural-gas-fired power plants, which could handle the “base-load” power demand, and only use solar power during times of peak air-conditioning demand on hot summer afternoons. Natural gas only emits about half the CO2 per unit energy extracted as oil or coal, and also has extremely low emissions of sulfur oxides and particulates (real pollutants).
Gas-fired turbines can emit nitrous oxides (NO and NO2), but most of them can be eliminated using Selective Catalytic Reduction, where a small amount of ammonia is injected into the flue gases and passed over a catalyst, and the ammonia and nitrous oxides react to form nitrogen (N2) and steam, which are then released to the atmosphere. This technology has been around since the 1970’s, so it has been thoroughly proven to work.
The school children will noy be marched out to cry about the natural gas plants? That would be a switch.
They make it sound like it’s common sense to have some reliable energy available. Don’t they realise they’re destroying the planet?
/s
Natural gas, you can turn it on when you need it, you can use it at any time of the day or night, it is readily available, it is relatively affordable and it burns relatively cleanly,” said Assemblymember Patterson
This has been discussed here before. Natural gas plants large enough to be economically viable cannot simply be turned on. It takes quite a while to bring one on line and therefore must be kept idling (consuming natural gas) until the power is needed.
The smaller “temporary” plants won’t be cost effective and will keep electricity prices sky high (they already are in Californicus).
Are you saying that rooftop solar never sells power to the grid?
solar power means :Take off your pants and fart, to put butter on bacon
I could imagine living in the SW and using a solar array to power and air conditioning compressor, making it just big enough to power the compressor and nothing else. On a warm day, you can be pretty sure you’ll make use of all that power running the compressor during the hottest hours of the day. For anything else, it’s a complete crapshoot and the utilities should not be subsidizing this charade just to greenwash a system that doesn’t even work. Feed-in tariffs for solar generation have been a nail-soup-scam from the start.
The gas generator backup is a political thing. Gavin Newsom doesn’t want ANY blackouts to occur prior to the recall election. Watch them go away after the recall election on Sept. 14.
David,
For California Solar output, do you have the amounts of solar energy being sent to Nevada and AZ at loss, aside from the curtailments?
It probably includes some Nevada generation.
https://www.ferc.gov/industries-data/electric/electric-power-markets/caiso
I don’t know about electricity imported by CAISO. I would like to think that they can’t curtail production outside their jurisdiction.