Gov. Jerry Brown of California has proposed ambitious new targets for increasing the quantity of renewable energy in state’s electric grid to 50% by 2030 from the current target of 33% by 2020.
California is a leader in renewable power production and is already running into technical challenges managing the overproduction of renewable power.
Four times this past spring, the state’s grid operator had to shut off wind and solar power when it exceeded demand. The largest such curtailment was 1,100 megawatts during the morning of April 27, 2014.
“Grid operators are now seeing overgeneration beginning to manifest itself during the midday hours necessitating curtailments, just as the duck curve forecasted,” said CAISO spokesman Steven Greenlee. – E&E Publishing
The plants that were curtailed likely received all of their contracted payments from the utilities, as contracts generally have a small curtailment provision built in. But as curtailment becomes more likely, contracts could become more flexible in the future, Bloom said.
There will be a need to incorporate energy storage into renewables projects, as well. Right now, a solar project without storage would beat out one with storage solely on cost. Another solution frequently mentioned is to use the excess midday renewable power for other things, such as charging electric vehicles or even desalinating seawater.
