A first as California 100 percent powered by renewables

In what is believed to be a first, California has been 100 percent powered by renewables with the majority being provided from solar parks along a local interstate highway.

Energy officials and environmentalists watched with joy as the tracker edged closer to 100 percent, peaking at 100 percent where it stayed for more than 15 minutes. The achievement is a major milestone in the state’s efforts to meet California’s 2018 law requiring the state to use 100 percent clean energy by 2045.

Dan Jacobson, Senior Advisor to Environment California tweeted: “California busts past 100% on this historic day for clean energy!”

His colleague Laura Deehan, an Executive Director, said: “The organisation and others have worked for 20 years to push the Golden State to complete renewable power via a series of ever tougher mandates. California solar plants play a really big role.”

Environment California has pushed for one million solar rooftops state-wide, a milestone that has already been achieved, with rooftop systems said to be more environmentally friendly. In California many of the solar parks have been built in fragile desert areas in the Mojave Desert.

Deehan added: “California has shown that, for one brief and shining moment, we could do it! Now we need to get our state running on 100 percent clean energy for the whole day, the whole week, and the whole year. It’s time to move to 100 percent clean energy, 100 percent of the time.”

He and others believe that still more needs to be done despite the progress, with the national government’s inquiry into tariffs on imported solar panels. The Department of Commerce is said to be delaying thousands of megawatts of solar-plus-storage projects in California, when the state is making major inroads in reaching its target of 100 percent powered by renewables.

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