AWEA-California calls for more wind generated power in state energy mix

AWEA-California calls for more wind generated power in state energy mix

August 25, 2020 0 By Bret Williams

One of the group’s local branches said state leaders “must recognize” renewables to keep power flowing.

The American Wind Energy Association of California (AWEA-California) is calling for the state to boost its investments into renewable power sources for the California energy mix. This electricity generation should include on- and offshore wind, said the group.

The group released a statement on the subject following the state’s rolling power outages.

The statement was written by AWEA-California director Danielle Osborn Mills. She said that the state’s power system is in need of “significantly more diversity,” since it is currently highly reliant on solar, gas and storage. The statement went on to use the recent blackouts as an example of the current struggles in the state’s energy mix.

She said that there was “once again a push for more storage, microgrids, and other alternatives to back these systems up,” adding that: “State leaders must recognise that we need more renewables of all kinds to keep the lights on.” Osborn Mills underscored the Californian goal to achieve 100 percent clean energy production over the next two and a half decades while doing so with safe, reliable and affordable electricity.

The AWEA-California statement pointed out that renewables have proven themselves in recent years.

The statement said that the widespread use of renewable energy has shown for more than ten years that it has the capacity to meet all the state’s targets. However, it underscored that California and in other western states, the renewable system has yet to be adequately completed and that it was constructed around different resources.

The outcome is that the state must “refocus its planning and procurement processes” to make it possible to bring in utility-scale solar, wind and storage, said the statement. This, it said, will be integral to providing the state with reliable power before the aging conventional system can be fully retired.

Though the AWEA-California report praised the start of the renewable energy system in the state, and its move into solar power, it pointed out that this is not enough. It said that the “solar resources are performing exactly as it should”, but that as much as the sun can AWEA-California - wind turbinesprovide enormous amounts of electricity, “the state needs a better plan for providing clean energy in that evening period when the sun sets.”

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