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California added 1,200 megawatts of battery vitality storage to its electrical grid over the past six months, additional constructing on its nation-leading capability and pushing the state nearer to its clear vitality objectives, officers mentioned Thursday.
Gov. Gavin Newsom introduced the most recent milestone whereas making the rounds on the United Nations Convention of the Events local weather summit in Belém, Brazil, the place he’s touting the state’s worldwide local weather management amid the notable absence of officers from the Trump administration.
With the most recent additions, the Golden State has reached 16,942 megawatts of obtainable battery storage — about one-third of the estimated capability wanted to achieve its aim of 100% clear vitality by 2045.
Battery vitality storage programs seize extra wind and solar energy and push it onto the grid throughout hours of peak demand, or when the solar isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing.
Newsom used the announcement as a chance to swipe at President Trump, who has centered closely on the expansion of fossil fuels resembling oil, gasoline and coal whereas concurrently slashing funding for renewable vitality tasks in California and throughout the U.S.
“Donald Trump’s reckless vitality agenda places China first and America final — letting Beijing seize the worldwide clear vitality financial system and the good-paying jobs, manufacturing, and financial prosperity that include it,” the governor mentioned in a press release. “California received’t stand by and watch.”
Whereas China continues to burn fossil fuels, the nation is breaking world data with its investments in renewable vitality and battery storage. In 2024, China commissioned 37 gigawatts of battery storage, greater than the mixed additions of the U.S. and Europe, in line with the vitality suppose tank Ember.
However battery storage has additionally been transformative for California, serving to the state keep away from rolling blackouts and pressing requires vitality conservation, generally known as Flex Alerts, within the final a number of years. California now has extra put in battery capability than another jurisdiction on the planet apart from China, in line with Newsom.
“We now dominate,” he mentioned at a local weather buyers occasion in São Paulo on Monday earlier than heading to Belém.
Specialists say the state’s good points are spectacular. The U.S. has about 37 gigawatts of complete working battery capability, almost half of which is in California, mentioned Maia Leroy, founding father of the vitality consulting agency Lumenergy LLC.
“California is claiming an enormous victory right here,” Leroy mentioned. She mentioned the state’s capability of 16,942 megawatts — or 16.9 gigawatts — is sufficient to energy about 13 million houses for 4 hours, the everyday length of a battery.
The surge in storage is assembly with even sooner development of photo voltaic within the state. Collectively, photo voltaic plus batteries have eradicated greater than 37% of fossil gasoline use on the state’s important grid, the California Impartial System Operator, in simply the final two years, in line with Mark Z. Jacobson, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford College.
“That is a gigantic quantity of batteries,” Jacobson mentioned.
Vitality storage is one among some ways California is hoping to face out at this 12 months’s COP summit. Representatives from the state — together with Newsom, California Pure Assets Secretary Wade Crowfoot and Air Assets Board Chair Lauren Sanchez — have additionally entered into a number of partnerships and agreements with different areas and nations this week.
Amongst them is the International Vitality Storage and Grids Pledge, an initiative began eventually 12 months’s COP convention that units a world goal of deploying 1,500 gigawatts of vitality storage and constructing about 15.5 million miles of recent transmission infrastructure by 2030. California turned the primary subnational entity to affix the pledge, which has been backed by greater than 100 nations and organizations.
The pledge is an effective begin, however the world wants extra than simply storage and transmission, Jacobson mentioned.
“California is transferring sooner than the U.S. as an entire, however to essentially make inroads, California must additionally electrify transport, trade and buildings as quick as it’s constructing batteries, whereas rising offshore wind, utility photo voltaic, rooftop photo voltaic and enhanced geothermal,” he mentioned.
The state is working towards these objectives, together with pushing ahead with a significant offshore wind mission that misplaced almost half a billion {dollars} in federal funding from the Trump administration this 12 months.
Different agreements signed at COP to this point this 12 months embody joint partnerships and memoranda of understanding with Colombia, Chile, Nigeria, the Brazilian state of Pará and the German state of Baden-Württemberg on points resembling wildfire prevention and response, sustainable city transportation and greenhouse gasoline emission reductions.
Occasions workers author Melody Gutierrez contributed to this report.
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