Cal­i­for­nia ‘throw­ing away’ wast­ed solar pow­er may raise elec­tric­i­ty prices

In Cal­i­for­nia, there are 47 gigawatts of solar pow­er installed atop rooftops, equal­ing out to over a quar­ter of the state’s ener­gy. How­ev­er, dur­ing the mid­dle of sun­ny spring days, the ener­gy pro­duced exceeds demand, mean­ing prices for elec­tric­i­ty will go neg­a­tive, and solar pow­er is thrown away. 
Solar ener­gy waste is most preva­lent in the spring when there is less need for heat­ing and cool­ing. Use is high in the morn­ing and evening but dras­ti­cal­ly reduces dur­ing the day. There­fore, the Nation­al Renew­able Ener­gy Lab­o­ra­to­ry found that with a high demand of solar pow­er on an elec­tric­i­ty grid, the net­load of renew­able ener­gy takes on a “U” shape. How­ev­er, even when demand is low, solar pan­els con­tin­ue to absorb ener­gy that goes to waste. In 2022, the state wast­ed 2.4 mill …