Solar power glut boosts California electric bills. Other states reap the benefits [View all]

California is making so much solar energy that large commercial operators are increasingly forced to stop production, raising questions about the state’s costly plan to shift entirely to carbon-free sources of electricity.

In the last 12 months, California’s solar farms have curtailed production of more than 3 million megawatt hours of solar energy, either on the orders of the state’s grid operator or because prices had plummeted because of the glut, according to an analysis of data by The Times.

That’s enough to power 518,000 California homes for a year, based on average electricity usage.

To avoid overloading the power grid, California sometimes must stop producing solar and wind power. So far in 2024, the state has curtailed generation by 3.2 million megawatt hours — enough to power more than half a million homes for a year.

The amount of curtailed solar power has more than doubled from 1.5 million megawatt hours in 2021, state records show, and is up eight times from levels in 2017.

https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2024-11-24/california-has-so-much-solar-power-that-increasingly-it-goes-to-waste

An unintended consequence of excess solar power production is that the state sells the excess to neighboring states, which effectively lowers the cost of electricity to their customers. So California residents are actually subsidizing those lower rates to non-Californians.