California Breaks Through in Solar Energy Production | PG&E Currents
PG&E Currents - News And Perspectives From Pacific Gas & Electric Company
While most of us were taking it easy this Labor Day weekend, California’s photovoltaic panels were hard at work, generating record amounts of clean solar power needed to keep living rooms cool and drinks ice cold.
On both Saturday and Sunday, solar power in the state peaked at just over 1,000 megawatts (MW). That’s roughly the same capacity as two large natural gas-fired plants. (Of course, gas-fired plants can keep the lights on at night, when solar isn’t much use.)
Going into the weekend, on Friday, solar output was even higher, reaching 1,076 MW. Total solar energy produced over the course of the day was about 8,500 megawatt hours, enough to serve the total daily electric demand of about 460,000 typical homes in PG&E’s service area.
