California has set a benchmark for renewable energy

thecooldown.com

24 points·belter··5 comments

A mountainous, hot, sunny place with a long oceanic coast miraculously produces a lot of hydro, solar and wind energy.

Actually CA isn't able to tap much hydro, that's Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana. CA also barely has wind potential, that's the middle of the country[0]: Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Iowa, Dakotas. CA has great solar potential but the difference is it actually did something about it. Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and somewhat Utah and Colorado could have done as much, but they chose not to.[1]

[0] https://twitter.com/IanDWyatt/status/1779520583123833017/pho...

[1] https://www.nrel.gov/gis/solar-resource-maps.html

TX seems to be heavily investing in solar: https://archive.is/0V3zK

Texas built more grid solar than California in 2021 and 2023.

https://www.govtech.com/products/central-texas-experiencing-...

Texas is on track to lead grid battery installs in 2024.

https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/energy-storage/texas-wi...

That's because they've lagged the past decade and are just now trying to catch up. Compare CA's grid, which already has a sizeable amount of grid batteries: https://app.electricitymaps.com/zone/US-CAL-CISO

Two posts on HN today about how CA is already running 100% renewable during the day. Of course CA won't be adding too much solar now, they already have, and just need extra batteries, of which they already are at #1 for grid battery storage installed.

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