California ISO sets record of almost 100% renewables on grid

The California Independent System Operator (ISO) on Saturday set a new record of just below 100% for renewable power generation on the grid.

In a tweet on Monday, it said that 99.87% of momentary demand was served by renewable energy at 1450 local time. This beats previous records of 97.6% in early April and of 96.4% in late March. The record before that, of 94.5%, was set in April last year as the highest renewables generation is usually observed in the spring.

“While these all-time highs are for a brief time, they solidly demonstrate the advances being made to reliably achieve California’s clean energy goals,” ISO president and chief executive Elliot Mainzer said in a statement on April 14.

California ISO also then reported that the grid experienced an all-time solar peak of 13,628 MW on April 8 and a wind high of 6,265 MW on March 4.

Aiming to achieve a carbon-free power system by 2045, California now has over 15,000 MW of grid-connected solar and almost 8,000 MW of wind, as well as 2,700 MW of storage, which is expected to grow to about 4,000 MW by June 1. A further 600 MW of solar and 200 MW of wind are also expected to join the grid by that date.

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