5 ms·

Solar becomes top source of electricity in California

55 points by martinpw 1y ago

adenta 1y ago
Is there an expected date we can start doing industrial scale desalination with excess electricity?
- dotcoma 1y ago
  These people do it with solar panels… https://solarwatersolutions.com/ https://solarwatersolutions.com/
- metalman 1y ago
  yesterday, right.....solar goes into the grid, the grid powers any industrial scale desalination..... silliness aside, there will soon be formats where co generation will be economic, solar to power desalination, the generated brine bieng used for just salt, and then also refined for sodium to make batteries to capture more solar to power plants to turn sand into glass and purified silicone to make more solar and refine aluminum and copper. agriculture in areas next to the ocean, where there is no fresh water, and essentialy free, barren flat land....fully robotisised greenhouses the current scale of PV production is unbelievably huge, and growing.... land might be too expensive in California, but in Peru on the coast, there are never any clouds and vast areas that only need water to be productive, also as a desert, there are very few bugs and diseases to deal with, and even a short distance between operations would serve as an effective quarantine
- some-guy 1y ago
  Sadly I think AI is going to push that further out if we ever get to that point.
- Scarblac 1y ago
  We first need to replace all fossil energy with electricity, so there's a long way to go still.
  - JumpCrisscross 1y ago
    > We first need to replace all fossil energy with electricity We really don’t. Desalinated water is certainly more socially useful than a bunch of other uses of power that we don’t question.
  - know-how 1y ago
    [dead]
toomuchtodo 1y ago
California should hit their battery target far earlier than their 2045 goal based on the cost decline curve and manufacturing ramp of stationary storage.
- martinpw 1y ago
  Battery storage growth has been incredible and you can see the gains almost weekly: https://www.gridstatus.io/records/caiso?record=Maximum%20Battery%20Discharging https://www.gridstatus.io/records/caiso?record=Maximum%20Bat... It looks like batteries are now able to displace 100% of imports (which are mostly gas) for a period after sunset, eg here from yesterday: https://www.gridstatus.io/live/caiso?date=2025-07-08 https://www.gridstatus.io/live/caiso?date=2025-07-08 Even just a few weeks ago, imports would begin as soon as the sun set.
  - toomuchtodo 1y ago
    LFP stationary battery storage appears to be at ~$52/kWh in China [1] (compare to $181 in 2018 per Our World in Data). California buys a lot of stationary storage from Tesla though, which is preparing to start production at the new Sparks, NV LFP cell production facility [2]. Ford is building their own facility in Michigan [3], with 35 GWh of capacity. [1] https://reneweconomy.com.au/watershed-moment-big-battery-storage-prices-hit-record-low-in-huge-china-auction/ https://reneweconomy.com.au/watershed-moment-big-battery-sto... [2] https://electrek.co/2025/07/01/tesla-unveils-lfp-battery-factory-claims-almost-ready/ https://electrek.co/2025/07/01/tesla-unveils-lfp-battery-fac... [3] https://electrek.co/2025/06/25/ford-stands-by-controversial-lfp-battery-plant-to-cut-ev-costs/ https://electrek.co/2025/06/25/ford-stands-by-controversial-...
    - bryanlarsen 1y ago
      That $52/kWh price isn't for raw battery modules, it's for a fully packaged bulk storage system. Which means the raw battery module price is significantly less than $52/kWh. Wowsers.
      - deleted 1y ago
kibwen 1y ago
> Data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), processed by Ember’s US Electricity Data Explorer, shows that in the 12 months ending April 2025, solar generated 83.1 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity, compared to 81.6 TWh from natural gas. I thought this was going to be the usual headline bait-and-switch where it would be revealed to only be the top source of electricity for like two hours around noon on a single Saturday, but I'm happy to have been wrong here.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
thedrbrian 1y ago
Need that anakin meme. And it’s got the cheapest electricity right. …. The cheapest right?
- ZeroGravitas 1y ago
  No, that is still onshore wind according to Lazard. Solar seems set to overtake though both are predicted to continue to drop in price and the cheapest examples of both are currently the same price to build new as running existing nuclear or gas combined cycle plants.
486sx33 1y ago
[dead]
mbrumlow 1y ago
Yet prices keep going up. Gahh 8k true up bill on top of paying 1k a month ?

55 points by martinpw 1y ago

adenta 1y ago

Is there an expected date we can start doing industrial scale desalination with excess electricity?

dotcoma 1y ago
These people do it with solar panels… https://solarwatersolutions.com/ https://solarwatersolutions.com/
metalman 1y ago
yesterday, right.....solar goes into the grid, the grid powers any industrial scale desalination..... silliness aside, there will soon be formats where co generation will be economic, solar to power desalination, the generated brine bieng used for just salt, and then also refined for sodium to make batteries to capture more solar to power plants to turn sand into glass and purified silicone to make more solar and refine aluminum and copper. agriculture in areas next to the ocean, where there is no fresh water, and essentialy free, barren flat land....fully robotisised greenhouses the current scale of PV production is unbelievably huge, and growing.... land might be too expensive in California, but in Peru on the coast, there are never any clouds and vast areas that only need water to be productive, also as a desert, there are very few bugs and diseases to deal with, and even a short distance between operations would serve as an effective quarantine
some-guy 1y ago
Sadly I think AI is going to push that further out if we ever get to that point.
Scarblac 1y ago
We first need to replace all fossil energy with electricity, so there's a long way to go still.
- JumpCrisscross 1y ago
  > We first need to replace all fossil energy with electricity We really don’t. Desalinated water is certainly more socially useful than a bunch of other uses of power that we don’t question.
- know-how 1y ago
  [dead]

toomuchtodo 1y ago

California should hit their battery target far earlier than their 2045 goal based on the cost decline curve and manufacturing ramp of stationary storage.

martinpw 1y ago
Battery storage growth has been incredible and you can see the gains almost weekly: https://www.gridstatus.io/records/caiso?record=Maximum%20Battery%20Discharging https://www.gridstatus.io/records/caiso?record=Maximum%20Bat... It looks like batteries are now able to displace 100% of imports (which are mostly gas) for a period after sunset, eg here from yesterday: https://www.gridstatus.io/live/caiso?date=2025-07-08 https://www.gridstatus.io/live/caiso?date=2025-07-08 Even just a few weeks ago, imports would begin as soon as the sun set.
- toomuchtodo 1y ago
  LFP stationary battery storage appears to be at ~$52/kWh in China [1] (compare to $181 in 2018 per Our World in Data). California buys a lot of stationary storage from Tesla though, which is preparing to start production at the new Sparks, NV LFP cell production facility [2]. Ford is building their own facility in Michigan [3], with 35 GWh of capacity. [1] https://reneweconomy.com.au/watershed-moment-big-battery-storage-prices-hit-record-low-in-huge-china-auction/ https://reneweconomy.com.au/watershed-moment-big-battery-sto... [2] https://electrek.co/2025/07/01/tesla-unveils-lfp-battery-factory-claims-almost-ready/ https://electrek.co/2025/07/01/tesla-unveils-lfp-battery-fac... [3] https://electrek.co/2025/06/25/ford-stands-by-controversial-lfp-battery-plant-to-cut-ev-costs/ https://electrek.co/2025/06/25/ford-stands-by-controversial-...
  - bryanlarsen 1y ago
    That $52/kWh price isn't for raw battery modules, it's for a fully packaged bulk storage system. Which means the raw battery module price is significantly less than $52/kWh. Wowsers.
    - deleted 1y ago

kibwen 1y ago

> Data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), processed by Ember’s US Electricity Data Explorer, shows that in the 12 months ending April 2025, solar generated 83.1 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity, compared to 81.6 TWh from natural gas. I thought this was going to be the usual headline bait-and-switch where it would be revealed to only be the top source of electricity for like two hours around noon on a single Saturday, but I'm happy to have been wrong here.

deleted 1y ago
[deleted]

thedrbrian 1y ago

Need that anakin meme. And it’s got the cheapest electricity right. …. The cheapest right?

ZeroGravitas 1y ago
No, that is still onshore wind according to Lazard. Solar seems set to overtake though both are predicted to continue to drop in price and the cheapest examples of both are currently the same price to build new as running existing nuclear or gas combined cycle plants.

486sx33 1y ago

[dead]

mbrumlow 1y ago

Yet prices keep going up. Gahh 8k true up bill on top of paying 1k a month ?