Solar Glut: Half of California's Solar Power Sometimes Goes to Waste, Research Shows (latimes.com) 19
Some days more than half of California's available solar power goes to waste, according to research from the California Institute for Energy and Environment. "In the last 12 months, California's solar farms have curtailed production of more than 3 million megawatt hours of solar energy," according to a data analysis by the Los Angeles Times — enough to power 518,000 California homes for a year.
And it was curtailed "either on the orders of the state's grid operator or because prices had plummeted because of the glut. The waste would have been even larger if California had not paid utilities in other states to take the excess solar energy, documents from the state's grid operator show." That means green energy paid for by California electricity customers is sent away, lowering bills for residents of other states. Arizona's largest public utility reaped $69 million in savings last year by buying from the market California created to get rid of its excess solar power. The utility returned that money to its customers as a credit on their bills. Also reaping profits are electricity traders, including banks and hedge funds. The increasing oversupply of solar power has created a situation where energy traders can buy the excess at prices so low they become negative, said energy consultant Gary Ackerman, the former executive director of the Western Power Trading Forum. That means the solar plant is paying the traders to take it. "This is all being underwritten by California ratepayers," Ackerman said...
The solar glut also means higher electricity bills for Californians, since they are effectively paying to generate the power but not using it. California's electric rates are roughly twice the nation's average, with only Hawaii having higher rates. Rates at Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas & Electric increased by 51% over the last three years. "Ratepayers aren't getting the energy they've paid for," said Ron Miller, an energy industry consultant in Denver. He calculates that the retail value of the solar energy thrown away in a year would be more than $1 billion.
Gov. Gavin Newsom's advisors and those who manage the state's electric grid say they are working to reduce the curtailments, including by building more industrial-scale battery storage facilities that soak up the excess solar power during the day and then release it at night. Officials in the governor's office declined to be interviewed, but issued a statement saying the curtailments are often because of congestion on transmission lines, rather than a statewide oversupply of power. The state has been spending heavily to upgrade transmission lines to ease the congestion. "It's also important to have extra energy resources available that can help the state during periods of extreme weather and historic heatwaves when demand is particularly high, which have happened the past few years," the statement said...
The commercial solar industry contends that the expansion of storage capacity to bank solar power will eventually eliminate the glut.
And it was curtailed "either on the orders of the state's grid operator or because prices had plummeted because of the glut. The waste would have been even larger if California had not paid utilities in other states to take the excess solar energy, documents from the state's grid operator show." That means green energy paid for by California electricity customers is sent away, lowering bills for residents of other states. Arizona's largest public utility reaped $69 million in savings last year by buying from the market California created to get rid of its excess solar power. The utility returned that money to its customers as a credit on their bills. Also reaping profits are electricity traders, including banks and hedge funds. The increasing oversupply of solar power has created a situation where energy traders can buy the excess at prices so low they become negative, said energy consultant Gary Ackerman, the former executive director of the Western Power Trading Forum. That means the solar plant is paying the traders to take it. "This is all being underwritten by California ratepayers," Ackerman said...
The solar glut also means higher electricity bills for Californians, since they are effectively paying to generate the power but not using it. California's electric rates are roughly twice the nation's average, with only Hawaii having higher rates. Rates at Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas & Electric increased by 51% over the last three years. "Ratepayers aren't getting the energy they've paid for," said Ron Miller, an energy industry consultant in Denver. He calculates that the retail value of the solar energy thrown away in a year would be more than $1 billion.
Gov. Gavin Newsom's advisors and those who manage the state's electric grid say they are working to reduce the curtailments, including by building more industrial-scale battery storage facilities that soak up the excess solar power during the day and then release it at night. Officials in the governor's office declined to be interviewed, but issued a statement saying the curtailments are often because of congestion on transmission lines, rather than a statewide oversupply of power. The state has been spending heavily to upgrade transmission lines to ease the congestion. "It's also important to have extra energy resources available that can help the state during periods of extreme weather and historic heatwaves when demand is particularly high, which have happened the past few years," the statement said...
The commercial solar industry contends that the expansion of storage capacity to bank solar power will eventually eliminate the glut.
Tax rebate helps (Score:2)
Having solar panels that you got for a discount helps. And there are some incentives now for battery storage. Which is good because PG&E doesn't really want to pay me much for my solar generation anymore.
Holy Moly (Score:2)
USD 0.37/kWh
And I thought we had it bad in Australia at USD0.21
Thats got to make for some mighty painful power bills.
There is so much grift in renewable energy.
Maybe Elon should think about nuclear instead or Mars!
Wait, what? (Score:2)
Am I reading this correctly? California pays other utilities to take electricity it cannot use? How can that possibly make sense? Surely they can find a neighboring state (or Mexico) willing to buy the electricity?
Re: (Score:2)
PGE's fault for not having time-shifting prices (Score:5, Interesting)
When prices go negative, PGE doesn't drop the cost of my electric power. If they did, I'd be running my AC and charging my car. Instead, I pay the same amount from midnight to 3PM. PGE can burn, like they made the state burn.
Re: (Score:2)
Even if PGE (and other electric companies around the country), were to invest into battery stora
Something is amiss. (Score:2, Troll)
Congestion-related curtailment is the dominant reason for curtailment.
What this really means is that CAISO [caiso.com] is refusing to build out the transmission lines in a timely manner and it's getting worse. Since CAISO is a shareholder driven organization, I wouldn't be surprised if the process is being intentionally retarded by fossil fuel investors.
Distributed battery storage (Score:2)
If it weren't CA, Bitcoin could solve this (Score:2)
What a waste!
Bitcoin mining could solve this and monetize the unused energy -- oh right, it's California. So for political reasons, bitcoin is probably off the table. And so it's better to just throw all that power away?
Re: (Score:2)
A cheaper and better use would be to capture the excess energy via gravity battery, pumped hydro, flow battery, compressed air, or thermal batteries. Reuse the stored energy after the sun goes down. Store it near the generation point so transmission-line congestion is minimized. That way all electrical customers benefit from the temporary overproduction.
Re: (Score:2)
The official line is that they're working on it - installing battery and other power storage systems to soak up the excess power.
But remember that perfect is the enemy of "good enough". It may be cheaper to waste the power for a few hours a few days a year than to try to capture it, meanwhile the power is used handily the other 99% of the time it is operating.
Re: (Score:2)
Anyone who would believe bitcoin bro's would restrict their energy demands to off-peak hours, or to "extra" supply, is an idiot.
Re: (Score:2)
Bitcoin bro's are looking to make money though. They're not going to set up where electricity is 3X the price of elsewhere. If Texas will sell them energy at around 9 cents/kWh, and California wants 30, they'll go to Texas.
If the cheapest power plans involve electricity rates rising to over $1/kWh in select circumstances that only happen once every few years or so, they'll shut the servers off during those times.
Re: (Score:2)
"Paying to generate..." (Score:2)
Not when it's all installed and set up... right? There isn't fuel to feed in and pay for. And I assume little extra work they'd not be doing for the current customers.