California is producing so much solar energy that it has to pay other states — or energy traders — to use it, making electricity cheaper for other states’ residents, while raising energy bills for local residents.
The Los Angeles Times reported Sunday that California is oversupplying solar energy to such an extent that it is cutting back on solar energy by 3 million megawatts per year, enough to power more than half a million homes.
Worse, California pays other utilities to take the excess power, which means consumers in other states are receiving credits on their bills, while California residents are struggling with the burden of subsidizing “green” energy policies.
The Times reported:
Solar is the linchpin of California’s plan to generate all its electricity from carbon-free sources by 2045, but some energy experts question the feasibility of the plan given the state’s inability to use its existing solar capacity.
On some days, more than half the available solar power goes to waste, said Phillippe Phanivong of the California Institute for Energy and Environment located at UC Berkeley.
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The solar glut also means higher electricity bills for Californians, since they are effectively paying to generate the power but not using it.
The only solution is to invest in battery capacity to store the excess power. As Breitbart News reported earlier this year, the state is investing in additional energy storage capacity. However, it still does not have enough capacity to protect consumers from rolling blackouts during periods of peak demand, especially when solar energy may not be available.
Meanwhile, California has lowered the subsidy it paid to consumers to install solar panels — and continues to pay other states to take excess energy. Shockingly, according to the Times, California is not tracking how much it has paid other states.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
