Lots of solar energy? How California found itself faced with an unexpected energy challenge

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — It’s a common sight across the state: rows of suburban homes topped with solar panels.

But as California works toward its ambitious clean energy vision, an almost counterintuitive challenge has emerged: the state is sometimes generating more solar energy than it can handle. It has reached the point where a lot of clean energy will be wasted.

The phenomenon, which other states will likely face as they increase their own solar production, it has been dubbed the “duck curve”. The duck’s belly is the time of day when solar production can exceed demand. Because solar energy depends on the sun, the curve tends to be steeper on sunny days during spring, when few people use energy and turn on their air conditioning.

“We get to certain times of the year, particularly in the spring, when the demand for electricity is not yet that high, and we have good solar energy production where, under certain conditions, we actually have more than California can actually use. usage,” said Elliot Mainzer, CEO of the California Independent System Operator, which manages 80% of the state’s electricity flow.

“Under these conditions, we take advantage of the significant amount of transmission connectivity we have to other parts of the West and export much of that power to other utilities in the western United States,” he said.

“And under certain extreme conditions, we have to restrict it and shut it down,” he added.

According to data from the Independent System Operator, in recent years the amount of reduced, or wasted, renewable energy has skyrocketed both due to oversupply and so-called congestion, when there is more electricity than transmission lines in some areas can handle. to support. So far this year, the state has lost nearly 2.6 million megawatt-hours of renewable energy — most of it solar — more than enough to power every home in San Francisco for a year.

Mainzer said adding transmission lines would help increase the flow of electricity across the state and is advocating for allowing reforms to make that happen.

“When you build a new solar project or you build a new battery or a new wind project or a new geothermal resource, if you don’t have transmission lines available to access it and deliver it to customers, that generation is basically an island. It’s stranded,” he said.

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration has also been pushing to add more batteries to store excess energy for use during peak demand times. And state regulators, along with the California Public Utilities Commission, have taken a more controversial approach: drastically cutting financial incentives for homeowners who want to install solar energy.

The move outraged many in the rooftop solar industry, such as Ed Murray, president of the California Solar and Storage Association, which operates Aztec Solar outside Sacramento. The changes, he said, were devastating to his business. He said he laid off 10 employees in the last year.

“Sales dropped because no one wanted it anymore,” Murray said. “It wasn’t productive or profitable to produce solar energy and we were left to figure out what we would do now.”

According to the California Solar and Storage Association, residential solar installations were down 66% in the first quarter of 2024 compared to the same period in 2022. The trade group estimates that since the state changed the incentive structure, known as net metering, , 17,000 green jobs were lost across the state.

To make it profitable with the state’s new incentives, homeowners now have to install batteries in addition to solar panels, but that can cost an additional $10,000 to $20,000 or more.

“It’s an easy fix, but an expensive one,” Murray said. “Because people don’t want to or can’t buy batteries, unfortunately.”

In a statement, Newsom defended the state’s policies, saying that already this year the state has had nearly 100 days in which clean energy exceeded 100% of demand during some part of the day.

“No other state in America comes close to California’s solar output,” he said. “We are generating almost twenty times more solar energy than a decade ago, supplying millions of homes with clean energy. And now we’re adding more batteries faster than ever to help capture that energy for nighttime use.”

Proponents of state change in incentives also point to equity concerns, arguing that a shift to solar energy could increase the cost of energy for those who don’t have it or can’t afford it.

In making the 2022 announcement, Public Utilities Commission member John Reynolds said net metering “has left an incredible legacy and brought solar power to hundreds of thousands of Californians, but it is also profoundly expensive for non-solar customers and it was overdue for renovation.”

Murray disputes that argument and says most of his clients earn annual salaries of $50,000 to $60,000, often financed through loans at a time when interest rates have also soared.

Given California’s role as a leader in solar energy, Murray believes other states are paying attention and could follow suit.

“I’ve heard from Florida, Arizona, Minnesota, Massachusetts that they’re thinking about copying the rules, that they’re going to change the rules of the game,” he said. “They’re upset because it’s going to hurt a lot.”

“As we move forward, California goes, and typically so does the rest of the country,” he added.

It’s an example that as California embarks on its historic clean energy transition — with the goal of achieving 100% clean energy by 2045 — new challenges cast a shadow on the path to a renewable future.

“There’s no way we’re going to get there without rooftop solar,” Murray said. “Electric vehicles, heat pumps, electric stoves – that’s not going to happen without solar energy. Period.”

This article was originally published in NBCNews. with