science

20218 readers

841 users here now

A community to post scientific articles, news, and civil discussion.

rule #1: be kind

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

543

Solar becomes top source of electricity in California (pv-magazine-usa.com)

submitted 4 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

33 comments fedilink hide all child comments

"In the 12 months ending April 2025, solar generated 83.1 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity, compared to 81.6 TWh from natural gas."

"Nationally, solar generation continues to climb. In April, solar supplied 10.64% of U.S. electricity for the month (marking the first time the country crossed the 10% mark) and contributed 7.35% of generation over the rolling 12 months. California, by comparison, produced 42% of its electricity from solar at its seasonal peak in April, with May expected to push that figure even higher."

Good 'ol CA, long-time nation-leader.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

The issue is putting power back onto the grid. If power is out otherwise, the guys who come out to fix it want to assume there's no power on it. If someone's solar panels are still putting power into the local connection, it can be dangerous for those workers.

It is possible to have an automatic disconnection so that in a grid outage, your house will still be powered, but nothing is going out to the grid. They usually don't put those in unless you also have a battery backup. You may be able to ask your contractor to put one in, anyway.

This goes for generators, too. You're supposed to use a power transfer switch with those.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 days ago

This is good info and makes sense. Thanks!