Win

Renewable energy production in California exceeded total demand for 30 of 38 days, a significant milestone.

Admittedly, this is arguably the time of the year with the lowest electrical demand in the Golden State, but this is a heartening development:

In a major clean energy benchmark, wind, solar, and hydro exceeded 100% of demand on California’s main grid for 30 of the past 38 days.

Stanford University professor of civil and environmental engineering Mark Z. Jacobson has been tracking California’s renewables performance, and he shares his findings on Twitter (X) when the state breaks records. Yesterday he posted:

This is not an anomaly.

It is the new reality.

The percentages will only increase each year

Once again, California exceeds 100% of demand on its main grid with #WindWaterSolar

This is the 30TH OF THE PAST 38 DAYS that #WWS supply has exceeded demand for 0.25-6 h per day. https://t.co/Wo44TgD8Sl pic.twitter.com/78DNHZn5pg

— Mark Z. Jacobson (@mzjacobson) April 14, 2024

Jacobson notes that supply exceeds demand for “0.25-6 h per day,” and that’s an important fact. The continuity lies not in renewables running the grid for the entire day but in the fact that it’s happening on a consistent daily basis, which has never been achieved before.

Hopefully, we will see more of this.

This will not save the world on its own, but it's a start.