2015 saw a shift in the balance of utility-scale renewable energy power in California. A recent report notes that utility-scale solar energy jumped past wind for the first time within the state. Vaisala notes public records from the California Independent Systems Operations (CAISO) show California utility-scale solar energy in 2015 … [continued]
Delivering solar-generated electricity to SDG&E’s recently completed high-voltage transmission line marks a milestone for Imperial Valley residents,SDG&E and California’s efforts to forge a green energy infrastructure and economic ecosystem.
Intense lobbying from the state’s three largest utilities effectively squashed the bill, which would have enabled renters and others to subscribe and receive solar and other renewable power from project developers in return for credits to their utility bills. […]
The forecast for renewable energy in California, already America’s strongest solar market, just keeps getting brighter. […]
Yes, that’s right: grid parity is here, well in California at least…and a lot faster than most ever thought possible. The weighted average highest cost of solar and other renewable power contracts accepted by California utilities in the state’s Renewable Auction Market (RAM) auction amounted to 8.9 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh) for 20-year power purchase contracts, the Vote Solar Initiative reported March 30. Though this doesn’t include transmission costs, $0.089/kWh is well below the average residential electricity cost of 15 cents per kWh in California in 2011, and that’s the weighted average highest cost of the accepted offers to the state’s electricity distributors.
Since the Renewable Portfolio Standard began in 2002, the California Public Utilities Commission has now approved contracts for more than 8,600 megawatts of new renewable energy, nearly all of it solar, signed with the state’s largest utilities. Most of the state’s renewable energy already on the grid till now has been wind power.
