There is indeed no doubt that renewables are on the rise when it comes to the Golden State in the US. As of 2022, almost 36% of California’s electricity sales happen to come from renewable sources such as solar, wind, and geothermal energy, which is indeed quite a substantial increase from the previous decade, in which only 12% of the electricity sales would come from renewables.
California has already gone on to commit to generating 100% of its electricity sales from carbon-free resources by 2045, which is indeed quite a critical milestone in the state’s combat against climate change. But in the months of March as well as April 2024, the state went on to experience a historic look in the future when society would go on to run solely on clean, renewable energy sources and not dirty fossil fuels.
So, what is California’s latest renewable energy milestone?
It is well to be noted that for 30 days in a 38-day stretch in March as well as April, California went ahead and supplied 100% of its energy demand with renewable energy for time periods that happened to range from 15 minutes to 6 hours every day. Mark Jacobson, Stanford’s professor, went on to track this notable milestone, demonstrating that there will surely come a day when 100% of their energy demand will be met by way of renewable energy every hour of the day.
What steps can California take in order to reach 100% renewable energy?
Opportunities to roll out more renewable energy capacity happen to be plentiful across California. One can as well deploy more solar panels when it comes to residential rooftops, on the giant rooftops of superstores as well as warehouses, over vast parking lots, and even on the land next to highways. In spite of California’s historic leadership when it comes to rooftop solar, they have still only taken advantage of 10% of the overall rooftop solar potential.
The fact is that one can tap into more wind energy by harnessing the strong, consistent winds off of California’s shores. By way of going big on offshore wind as well as meeting the state’s ambitious goals, one can supply enough energy to power more than 25 million households coming only from offshore wind energy.
The fact is that even the existing electric grid can be made more efficient so that one can transmit more clean, affordable, and reliable energy to where it happens to be needed the most. Due to the help of new technologies such as grid enhancing technologies as well as advanced conductors, which can go on to upgrade the capacity of the existing power lines, one can better go on to accommodate the rising amount of renewable energy powering society in the years to come.
In the endeavour to go ahead and meet 100% of electricity demand by way of clean energy, powering the state completely by way of renewable sources for a long stretch of days, even if only for a few hours every day, is indeed a great place to begin.