Environment & Energy

I should stop by and see if it's still working. I'm sure the original inverters turned themselves into e-waste a long time ago. Inverter technology is much better now.

Solar Parking lots are everywhere in my California city now. The schools have them, the hospitals have them, a nearby supermarket has them...

Rooftop solar is common too. My own neighborhood exports electricity when the sun is shining.

We've reached the point in California where new solar installations increase the price of electricity because huge battery/inverter stations must be built to store the excess. We also pay to keep gas plants running even when they are generating no electricity. This is part of the reason we pay 43 cents a kilowatt hour for electricity. In general places with aggressive renewable energy programs tend to have the most expensive electricity in the world. Sunlight may be free but integrating solar electricity into a reliable electric grid is expensive.

As I write this batteries are sinking an excess supply of about 7 and a half gigawatts. This energy will be released back into the grid as the sun goes down and into the evening. Unfortunately there's a limit to that too. It would take a ludicrous tonnage of batteries to displace fossil fuels entirely, especially in the winter.

https://www.caiso.com/todays-outlook/supply