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- Hacker News
- Utah isn't a power grid.
They're on the western interconnect.
Combined solar and wind are about 25-30% of production there.
These articles about individual states are trash.
by buckle8017 - So? We can still measure how much power everyone in a state uses, and how much power the state generates. Utah generates a lot of power from non-renewable sources, and I assume (but I can't find data) they have the ability to generate a lot more but didn't because solar was used instead. That solar is a big part of what Utah generates is just big news.
Now if we are comparing a hypothetical place that doesn't have anything else this wouldn't be interesting, but that isn't the case. (I'm sure my suburb generates more energy from solar than anything else - as you would expect the only other generation we have is backup generators)
by bluGill - Okay debbie downer, it's still positive newsby Rover222
- I think I know what this means, but I bet you share a better explanation with us all too of the point you're makingby petesergeant
- Utah is about half of the Pacificorp East balancing authority.
https://app.electricitymaps.com/map/zone/US-NW-PACE/live/fif...
Nevada Power serves a substantial amount of western Utah.
https://app.electricitymaps.com/map/zone/US-NW-NEVP/live/fif...
by toomuchtodo - Fwiw I think Utah is the only state with legalized plugin solar (many more on the way though!)by Rebelgecko
- good thing the President is pouring billions into restarting coal plants
what a freaking horror show we are living in
by ck2 - While the politicization of renewable energy isn't great, the interesting and positive thing to me is that it's entirely possible we're past the tipping point where the politics really matter.
Republican politicians in the US publicly rail against renewable energy because it's red meat for the Fox News crowd, but in reality you see even very Republican states like Utah investing in renewables because economic reality ultimately beats political ideology on stuff like this.
Maybe the worst aspect of renewable energy being turned into yet another political culture war issue is that while renewable energy resources themselves are probably inevitable, the political nonsense surrounding them has helped limit US investment in their development relative to places like China. As a result, the US and the West as a whole is likely to be far more reliant on Chinese technology in renewables than we otherwise might have been.
by rainsford - At least at this point solar can be driven by pure market forces, it doesn't need federal subsidies to make sense.by Rover222
- Paid article by solar-energy lobbyist.
- by toomuchtodo
- Sad to see coal going up (?)by laweijfmvo
- Vaclav Smil would be quick to replace the word power with electricity in the title of this article. It is why Germany can say renewables supply 56% of its electricity while renewables supply only about 21% of its energy. The rest of energy generation won't quickly be replaced with renewables: diesel and kerosene moving freight and people, natural gas in furnaces and boilers, coke reducing iron ore into steel, methane feeding the reactors that fix nitrogen to make fertilizer, and coal that turns limestone into cement.
I am fully on board with renewables! I have just found Smil's perspective quite useful here.
by grahamerwin - Vaclav Smil has been so wrong on energy, that I'm a bit surprised to see his name mentioned at all.
The idea of "primary energy" versus electricity is an important concept, but completely unconnected to Smil.
by epistasis - You've learned well from Smil how to make problems seem insurmountable by intentionally not approaching them with an engineering mindset.
We know how to do 80% of electricity, 80% of low temp hearing, 80% of transport all while saving money, reducing local pollution and delivering better products.
The big problem isnt technical,it's the culture war that Smil is fighting on the wrong side of and which spreads lies about renewables, EVs and heat pumps.
by ZeroGravitas - Also true for California for quite some time.
https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/solar/california-solar-...
What's going to happen in the future is that May will be a month of extreme electricity abundance, with a good chunk of the electricity just not being collected at all because the grid doesn't need it, and it will be cheaper to have unused electricity in May than to have too little solar in December.
by epistasis - Solar harvest time.by gtowey
- Not the future, now.
Most Australians now get free power for three hours a day because there is simply so much.
This is the way.
by testing22321 - If only we could use that extra power to make methane for later power plant useageby jvanderbot
- > What's going to happen in the future is that May will be a month of extreme electricity abundance, with a good chunk of the electricity just not being collected at all because the grid doesn't need it
This is already a thing in some places. Or, sometimes, because the grid can't _take_ it. Here's a dashboard for Irish energy production: https://www.smartgriddashboard.com/all/solar/?duration=month - on the wind and solar you'll notice that on big days, actual production is usually way below forecast production. This is sometimes due to actual mis-forecast, or due to renewable production being high enough that it meets total demand. But usually it's that the _grid_ can't take it; there is demand, but no way to get it there.
It's a chicken-egg problem, of course; you're not going to build excess grid capacity in the hopes that someone one day builds a wind farm, so in practice grid upgrades trail renewable sources.
by rsynnott - And eventually that arbitrage will be big enough to justify a pumped hydro/gravity/iron-air storage.by mekdoonggi