Solar battery capacity in California has been increasing at an impressive rate in the last four years, and data from the California Independent System Operator has detailed just how much clean power the technology is providing to the state's grid.
In 2020, battery capacity was providing 500 megawatts of power to the grid from solar sources, but the increase since is remarkable. In May 2023, 5,000 megawatts of clean power was available to use.
In addition to providing pollution-free power, the batteries were able to shoulder the burden of power supply in evening hours during the September 2022 heat wave, according to Canary Media.
The CAISO report revealed that battery storage in California is "coming online faster than any other sort of power plant," as Canary Media observed, and the publication noted that an order for utility companies to install more energy storage in 2010 has helped the Golden State make significant strides in capacity.
Doing so proved helpful quickly, with the Aliso Canyon gas storage facility leak in 2015 necessitating assistance from the grid to avoid blackouts.
"Battery storage proved the only tool ready to deploy fast enough to avoid grid outages," the Canary Media report said.
As the Aliso Canyon incident proved, the need to move away from dirty fuel is so important for the health of the planet. The leak was the largest release of natural gas in United States history, with around 100,000 tons of methane released, as NBC Los Angeles reported in 2022.
Methane remains in the atmosphere and traps heat. The United Nations Environment Programme said it can be 80 times more harmful in terms of planet-warming potential than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period.
The Copernicus climate report confirmed that 2023 was the hottest year on record since 1850, so slowing down the rate of global heating — which increases the chance of extreme weather and has serious health implications — is essential.
Relying less on natural gas and other dirty fuel sources can reduce the instances of such damage to the environment. A great alternative is solar power, a non-polluting, sustainable source of energy.
Storing that energy is crucial, though, as solar energy cannot be created overnight, but California has obviously seen the benefits that encouraging vast battery capacity can bring.
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