Can California Get 70% of Its Power From Renewables? Grid Says So

The grid can accommodate a lot more solar and wind power than many experts believe, according to a new study. If it’s correct, it could cut the cost of trying to deploy renewable power.

Stanford doctoral student Elaine Hart has been running simulations which try to maximize the amount of solar and wind power going over the electrical grid in California in roughly its current state, according to a report on Wired.com.

At least 70 percent of the power in California on a hot, summer day being generated by solar and wind in 2016, according to one result from the simulator. it’s a simulation of course and the simulations only try to mimic what the grid might experience in hour-long slices over a single day.

If the resources had been in place, renewables could have provided 50 percent of the power California needed on a winter day in 2007. (More on the study here.) Her ultimate conclusion is that the figure the governor has set for utilities—get 33 percent of your power from renewable energy—can go higher as far as the infrastructure is concerned.

The study came out at the American Geophysical Union, which has been a source of a number of stories this week. Here’s some of our coverage.

The grid potentially could slow the development of wind and solar power on a large scale, according to some. In short, the volume of wind power or power from solar panels can’t be predicted with much accuracy far in advance (unlike wave or tidal power, or even solar thermal) and wind and PV farms are often located far from urban centers that need power. (Think of it like organic food delivery boxes. You wouldn’t like it if they showed up with 18 pounds of grapes one day and then disappeared for a month.). Accommodating that variability will take some storage and transmission technologies. Hart’s study provides some indication that it may not be as hard as people thought.

Future simulations will also look at the impact that large-scale energy storage, solar thermal plants, improvements in conventional power plants and electrification of cars will have. Hart’s study indicates that hopes exist that this aspect  may not be as tough as it seems.