Los Angeles Times. (2020, August 19). How California can keep the lights on while meeting its clean energy goals. Retrieved August 29, 2020, from https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2020-08-19/how-california-can-keep-lights-on-while-meeting-clean-energy-goals
This article proposes several ideas that California could do going forward to keep using green energy while preventing future shutoffs. One solution is building many lithium-ion batteries, which can store power and then distribute it at night when solar power is less available. Another solution is to rapidly build solar panels either industrially or on more rooftops, which would create more energy to be used. Lastly, solar energy could be stored long term, being used in emergency situations if necessary.
This article explains different ways that clean energy, especially solar energy, can be used in a more widespread and reliable way. Acknowledging the downsides of solar energy, this article attempts to address ways that could make it a more reliable source. I feel that the proposals the article provides are good solutions to the problems of solar energy, and would be helpful to put into place, as they allow our state to be more efficient and minimize our carbon footprint.
These are a lot of interesting ideas that you mentioned. I had no idea that lithium-ion batteries could potentially help with future shutoffs by distributing power at night. You mentioned how this distribution at night could be helpful when solar power is less available—do you think that these batteries could work in tangent with solar panels to help with green energy? I’m also curious if you have a preferred method out of the ones you listed. Is there one that seems more realistic? More accessible and equitable? More effective?
Thanks for replying to my article! That’s the idea of the lithium-ion batteries- they store excess solar energy collected during the day to be used during the night. This would prevent shutoffs from happening in the future. Personally, I think that solar energy is the best form of green energy in our state since we get a lot of sunlight here, but also using lithium-ion batteries in conjunction with this to become 100% renewable. I think these together will be the most realistic, accessible, and equitable in the near future. However, lithium-ion batteries are still too expensive to be made in a large scale, but this is quickly changing as these batteries become cheaper and more energy efficient.