The Golden State of California broke all solar power generation records last weekend when 4,093 MW of solar-fuelled power reached the grid on Saturday, smashing the day-earlier record of 3,926 MW.
The data, which was revealed by the California Independent System Operator (ISO), represents an almost 50% increase in nearly two years, when June 2012 recorded 2,071 MW of peak solar power production.
"This shows that California is making remarkable progress in not only getting new resources approved and connected to the grid, but making meaningful contributions in keeping the lights on as well," said California ISO president Steve Berberich.
Saturday's solar performance was particularly edifying for the state's solar industry, with the Electric Power Research Institute also reporting that 78% of Californias installed solar capacity was feeding electricity to grid, accounting for 18% of the overall power demand. In laymans terms, this means that solar powered three million Californian homes on Saturday.
"This milestone illustrates that we are well into a new era when clean, renewable energy is shouldering its share of our electricity needs," added Berberich.
Figures from the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) show that California boasts the highest cumulative capacity of installed solar PV of any state, with 5.23 GW. Combined with wind and thermal power, Californias renewable energy generation capacity exceeds 15 GW.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.