4 ms·

The storage and grid upgrades have essentially removed all power outages in California? Again you operate on old information. On the other hand California do h

The storage and grid upgrades have essentially removed all power outages in California? Again you operate on old information. On the other hand California do have an absolutely massive air conditioning load in the summer. > And that isn't going to be any better with all petrol consumption switching to electric. Electrifying transportation is expected to add 15-25% extra load. A load that is extremely flexible in when it runs and thus perfectly match renewable intermittency. In 2025 alone China added 168 GWh of storage. I think you don’t realize how much even 50 GWh of storage causes the entire Californian grid to transform. Have a read: https://blog.gridstatus.io/caiso-solar-storage-spring-2025/ https://blog.gridstatus.io/caiso-solar-storage-spring-2025/

realusername 9mo ago
> On the other hand California do have an absolutely massive air conditioning load in the summer. Well good for them but the vast majority of the western world has the opposite load, reduced load in summer where the panels operate full capacity and massive consumption when they produce close to nothing. > In 2025 alone China added 168 GWh of storage. Great, and they use over 1400 GWh per day. In 2025 alone, it means they added an astonishing 3h of electricity storage (I'm rounding it up for you as a bonus)
- lostlogin 9mo ago
  > In 2025 alone, it means they added an astonishing 3h of electricity storage (I'm rounding it up for you as a bonus) That’s really good isn’t it? It would be unusual for solar to produce zero during the day, and the night is presumably going to be around 12 hours (in terms of solar generation). Energy usage is presumably less at night too. The storage is already meaningful, with 3 of the 12 hours of zero generation covered (assuming usage is flat over a 24 hour period, which it isn’t), and if they keep adding at that pace it’ll be very significant. Am I missing something?
  - realusername 9mo ago
    > Am I missing something? Yes, the missing piece here is most of the demand is in winter but most of the solar production in summer. Daily load shift is a solved problem since the 70s with dams anyways, it's not the issue with solar. The issue is season load shift which is still science fiction as we speak.
    - ViewTrick1002 9mo ago
      > Yes, the missing piece here is most of the demand is in winter but most of the solar production in summer. Wind power is anti-cyclical to solar. Both daily and seasonally.
      - realusername 9mo ago
        Most of the time yes, but most of the time isn't a good answer when we talk about a grid. See the nuclear issue in France which had an even worse wind generation issue compounding the problem. Not to mention the variability which is 10x worse than solar.
        ViewTrick1002 9mo ago
        That is the expected variability? On-shore wind has capacity factors between 25-40% depending on location and size of wind turbine. That it reduces to 11% is expected. Given that this happened once it is also quickly pushed higher by storage. How would add nuclear power to this grid mix? Yes, that is over 100% of demand being generated by rooftop solar. https://explore.openelectricity.org.au/energy/sa1/?range=7d&interval=30m&view=discrete-time&group=Detailed https://explore.openelectricity.org.au/energy/sa1/?range=7d&...
        realusername 9mo ago
        "Expected variability" is nonsense, you can't just say "yeah it doesn't work, that's normal" > How would add nuclear power to this grid mix? Yes, that is over 100% of demand being generated by rooftop solar. Absolute nonsense again, Australia has one of the dirtiest electricity generation of the developed world with 65% fossil. Nowhere near the totality of the demand is covered by solar, even if again they have almost no real winter.

realusername 9mo ago

> On the other hand California do have an absolutely massive air conditioning load in the summer. Well good for them but the vast majority of the western world has the opposite load, reduced load in summer where the panels operate full capacity and massive consumption when they produce close to nothing. > In 2025 alone China added 168 GWh of storage. Great, and they use over 1400 GWh per day. In 2025 alone, it means they added an astonishing 3h of electricity storage (I'm rounding it up for you as a bonus)

lostlogin 9mo ago
> In 2025 alone, it means they added an astonishing 3h of electricity storage (I'm rounding it up for you as a bonus) That’s really good isn’t it? It would be unusual for solar to produce zero during the day, and the night is presumably going to be around 12 hours (in terms of solar generation). Energy usage is presumably less at night too. The storage is already meaningful, with 3 of the 12 hours of zero generation covered (assuming usage is flat over a 24 hour period, which it isn’t), and if they keep adding at that pace it’ll be very significant. Am I missing something?
- realusername 9mo ago
  > Am I missing something? Yes, the missing piece here is most of the demand is in winter but most of the solar production in summer. Daily load shift is a solved problem since the 70s with dams anyways, it's not the issue with solar. The issue is season load shift which is still science fiction as we speak.
  - ViewTrick1002 9mo ago
    > Yes, the missing piece here is most of the demand is in winter but most of the solar production in summer. Wind power is anti-cyclical to solar. Both daily and seasonally.
    - realusername 9mo ago
      Most of the time yes, but most of the time isn't a good answer when we talk about a grid. See the nuclear issue in France which had an even worse wind generation issue compounding the problem. Not to mention the variability which is 10x worse than solar.
      - ViewTrick1002 9mo ago
        That is the expected variability? On-shore wind has capacity factors between 25-40% depending on location and size of wind turbine. That it reduces to 11% is expected. Given that this happened once it is also quickly pushed higher by storage. How would add nuclear power to this grid mix? Yes, that is over 100% of demand being generated by rooftop solar. https://explore.openelectricity.org.au/energy/sa1/?range=7d&interval=30m&view=discrete-time&group=Detailed https://explore.openelectricity.org.au/energy/sa1/?range=7d&...
        realusername 9mo ago
        "Expected variability" is nonsense, you can't just say "yeah it doesn't work, that's normal" > How would add nuclear power to this grid mix? Yes, that is over 100% of demand being generated by rooftop solar. Absolute nonsense again, Australia has one of the dirtiest electricity generation of the developed world with 65% fossil. Nowhere near the totality of the demand is covered by solar, even if again they have almost no real winter.