{"id":39914,"date":"2026-08-16T09:22:27","date_gmt":"2026-08-16T07:22:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/?p=39914"},"modified":"2026-08-16T09:22:27","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T07:22:27","slug":"california-was-mostly-solar-powered-in-may-a-global-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/?p=39914","title":{"rendered":"California was mostly solar-powered in May \u2014 a\u00a0global first"},"content":{"rendered":"
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.. SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT .. <\/p>\n

An article from Canary Media<\/a><\/p>\n

While the Trump administration is busy pointing out that\u00a0the sun doesn\u2019t shine at night<\/a>, solar is breaking records around the world, including in sunny California.<\/p>\n

Solar panels produced\u00a051% of California\u2019s electricity in May, the first time the clean energy source surpassed the halfway mark for an entire month. The data counts both large-scale installations and the state\u2019s bounty of rooftop arrays.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>(click on image to enlarge it.)
\n<\/center><\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t just a\u00a0milestone moment for California; it\u2019s a\u00a0milestone for the entire world. Think tank Ember says the state is the globe\u2019s first major economy to cross the\u00a050% threshold. (Hungary, at\u00a047% in June\u00a02025, is knocking at the door, though it has a\u00a0far smaller\u00a0GDP.)<\/p>\n

(Continued in right column)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Question for this article:<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
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Are we making progress in renewable energy?<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

(Continued from left column)<\/p>\n

Solar\u2019s rise has helped California cut polluting energy sources out of its power mix. Natural gas is the only fossil fuel that California power plants burn at appreciable levels, and solar is steadily squeezing it out of the system. Case in point: Solar outproduced gas not only during its record month of May but throughout\u00a0every month\u00a0in\u00a02026\u00a0leading up to it,\u00a0too.<\/p>\n

Solar could not have reached these heights alone. It needed batteries to get here \u2014 and California has that crucial energy storage in spades. The California Independent System Operator, which manages most of the state\u2019s grid, now boasts\u00a016\u00a0gigawatts of batteries that can shift abundant midday solar production to later in the evening. It\u2019s not uncommon for batteries to meet over one-quarter of the state\u2019s electricity demand for a\u00a0portion of the\u00a0night.<\/p>\n

All this solar and storage would have been hard to imagine a\u00a0decade ago. Back then, in its best month \u2014 also sunny, mild May \u2014 solar accounted for just\u00a017% of electricity. That number is well above the current national average for solar, but a\u00a0far cry from\u00a051%.\u00a0CAISO\u2019s battery fleet, meanwhile, was a\u00a0measly\u00a061\u00a0megawatts. So, storage has grown by, uh \u2026\u00a026,129% over the last decade, a\u00a0number so cartoonishly large that I\u2019m almost hesitant to print\u00a0it.<\/p>\n

Expect California to see more months break the\u00a050% threshold soon. And in the coming years, expect more states and countries to cross the halfway mark,\u00a0too.<\/p>\n

– – – – – –<\/p>\n

If you wish to make a comment on this article, you may write to coordinator@cpnn-world.org with the title “Comment on (name of article)” and we will put your comment on line. Because of the flood of spam, we have discontinued the direct application of comments.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

.. SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT .. An article from Canary Media While the Trump administration is busy pointing out that\u00a0the sun doesn\u2019t shine at night, solar is breaking records around the world, including in sunny California. Solar panels produced\u00a051% of California\u2019s electricity in May, the first time the clean energy source surpassed the halfway mark for an … Continue reading California was mostly solar-powered in May \u2014 a\u00a0global first<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[91,10],"tags":[5],"class_list":["post-39914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-north-america","category-sustainable","tag-north-america"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39914"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39914\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39916,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39914\/revisions\/39916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}