US California: Real-time state solar electric output

David3

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The California ISO website shows what % of California's electricity is, at this moment, being generated from solar, wind, geothermal, and other resources. Graphs are shown in real-time, updated every 5 minutes: California ISO - Supply

Example from right now (1:57 pm on 8/16/2020). 32.8% of California electricity from renewables, with 79.1% of that renewable energy being supplied by solar.

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Way too much natural gas being used, though there's going to have to be a blend for a while. We will never go on totally solar for various reasons, the realistic picture of the future of energy will be a mix with considerably less fossil fuels of any kind. I am saying this not out of a random guess, but from my former professor who is a PhD with a specialization in energy.

I love that specifically in my own area I can view an energy profile on my statement, and our renewable usage is much greater than CA as a whole. In fact I think we only use fossil fuels at all because PG&E built some big generator here, so technically they own some expensive equipment that has of yet prevented us from completely getting rid of them - but we have our own energy company, too.

Biomass is one great way to mitigate some of these forest fires. Manage the forests and use some of that as fuel instead of allowing it to cause massive deadly wild fires.
 
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I love that specifically in my own area I can view an energy profile on my statement, and our renewable usage is much greater than CA as a whole. In fact I think we only use fossil fuels at all because PG&E built some big generator here, so technically they own some expensive equipment that has of yet prevented us from completely getting rid of them - but we have our own energy company, too.
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That's fantastic! What is your region's electrical energy profile?
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That's fantastic! What is your region's electrical energy profile?
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Okay so we have a choice. We can go 100% with PG&E or with Redwood Coast Energy Authority. I am on a Redwood Coast Energy Authority plan, and it's not more expensive than like a dollar or two a month, people really exaggerate the difference in the price. The expense on most energy bills is via natural gas, and we (my roommates and I) have elected to refuse our natural gas heater in the future in favor of layers, blankets, and/or electric space heaters.

As you can see regionally, our use of biomass is greater, but this makes more sense for my area than say LA or even San Francisco. Biomass or biofuel is best when regional: forestry/wood mass in areas like my own, then corn in Wisconsin, whatever. Exporting it to other regions cancels out some of the greatness of biomass.

We use lower solar electric because of trademark fog. but we are still capable of using solar. So this means nearly everywhere could use 1/3-1/2 solar, because our UV rating is often 2 out of 10, during the day, super low. Especially when it's not summer.

After living there for almost a decade, I have strong opinions that Los Angeles should be entirely run on solar and there's pretty much zero excuse for why it's not that isn't corrupt in some way.


file:///C:/Users/anima/Downloads/RCEA_ElectricPowerGenerationMix.pdf