Photo: Charlie Riedel (AP)
What is that? Some good news on climate strike? In just one week, the US saw two encouraging wins for renewable energy: California’s power grid briefly ran on nearly 100% renewable energy in early April, while wind power was the nation’s second-largest source of energy on March 29.
First the encouraging news from the west coast. California officials said in a statement last week that the state would go almost entirely on renewable energy this month. As of 3:39 p.m. Sunday, April 3, the California Independent System Operator (ISO), a nonprofit organization that manages the grid, said the grid is powered by 97.6% renewable sources. That breaks a record set just the week before, when renewable energy accounted for 96.4% of electricity supply.
A state doesn’t seem like much to celebrate, but California is the country’s fourth-biggest electric utility. It also has some big climate goals: California is working to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 40% below 1990 levels by 2030 and to have a zero-carbon electricity grid by 2050.
“Although these all-time highs are short-lived, they provide a solid demonstration of the progress being made towards reliably meeting California’s clean energy goals,” ISO CEO Elliot Mainzer said in the statement.
This spring, another exciting record for renewable energy was set nationwide. The US Energy Information Administration reported last week that as of March 29, wind power was the second-largest source of electricity in the US, trailing only natural gas. Wind turbines in the contiguous U.S. generated a whopping 2,017 gigawatt hours (GWh) of electricity that day, accounting for just over 19% of daily U.S. electricity generation.
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This date marks the first time wind power has surpassed both coal and nuclear capacity – which were up 19% and 17% respectively on March 29. Wind power had outperformed coal and nuclear power separately on different days, but never provided enough power to outperform both.
Part of this is due to the capacity factor — a measure of how long an energy source actually produces electricity — of wind versus nuclear power. Nuclear power plants are designed for continuous operation, so their capacity factor is the highest of any energy source; Wind, on the other hand, can only provide energy when the wind is blowing. The fact that wind power matched the steady pace of nuclear power is encouraging, and signals it can only get stronger to blow past dirty fuels like coal and gas.
In California, the ISO explained in its statement, renewable energy records are generally set in spring, when mild temperatures and plenty of sunshine bring wind and sunshine. The wind records in March, one of the windiest months of the year, are not surprising either. Electricity demand generally eases in spring and fall as milder weather sets in, allowing renewables to take the lead over fossil fuels.
We still have a long way to go to fully electrify our power grid, including installing much more wind and solar resources, improving battery technology to store renewable energy, and keeping these reliable nuclear power plants on-grid to deliver zero-carbon base-load electricity. But these small victories are a promising start.