California added 1,200 megawatts of battery power storage to its electrical grid during the last six months, additional constructing on its nation-leading capability and pushing the state nearer to its clear power targets, officers mentioned Thursday.
Gov. Gavin Newsom introduced the newest milestone whereas making the rounds on the United Nations Convention of the Events local weather summit in Belém, Brazil, the place he’s touting the state’s worldwide local weather management amid the notable absence of officers from the Trump administration.
With the newest additions, the Golden State has reached 16,942 megawatts of obtainable battery storage — about one-third of the estimated capability wanted to succeed in its purpose of 100% clear power by 2045.
Battery power storage programs seize extra wind and solar energy and push it onto the grid throughout hours of peak demand, or when the solar isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing.
Newsom used the announcement as a possibility to swipe at President Trump, who has centered closely on the expansion of fossil fuels comparable to oil, gasoline and coal whereas concurrently slashing funding for renewable power initiatives in California and throughout the U.S.
“Donald Trump’s reckless power agenda places China first and America final — letting Beijing seize the worldwide clear power economic system and the good-paying jobs, manufacturing, and financial prosperity that include it,” the governor mentioned in a press release. “California received’t stand by and watch.”
Whereas China continues to burn fossil fuels, the nation is breaking world data with its investments in renewable power and battery storage. In 2024, China commissioned 37 gigawatts of battery storage, greater than the mixed additions of the U.S. and Europe, in line with the power assume tank Ember.
However battery storage has additionally been transformative for California, serving to the state keep away from rolling blackouts and pressing requires power conservation, generally known as Flex Alerts, within the final a number of years. California now has extra put in battery capability than some other jurisdiction on the planet aside from China, in line with Newsom.
“We now dominate,” he mentioned at a local weather traders occasion in São Paulo on Monday earlier than heading to Belém.
Consultants say the state’s positive aspects are spectacular. The U.S. has about 37 gigawatts of complete working battery capability, almost half of which is in California, mentioned Maia Leroy, founding father of the power consulting agency Lumenergy LLC.
“California is claiming an enormous victory right here,” Leroy mentioned. She mentioned the state’s capability of 16,942 megawatts — or 16.9 gigawatts — is sufficient to energy about 13 million houses for 4 hours, the standard length of a battery.
The surge in storage is assembly with even sooner development of photo voltaic within the state. Collectively, photo voltaic plus batteries have eradicated greater than 37% of fossil gasoline use on the state’s principal grid, the California Unbiased System Operator, in simply the final two years, in line with Mark Z. Jacobson, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford College.
“That is a gigantic quantity of batteries,” Jacobson mentioned.
Vitality storage is one among some ways California is hoping to face out at this 12 months’s COP summit. Representatives from the state — together with Newsom, California Pure Sources Secretary Wade Crowfoot and Air Sources Board Chair Lauren Sanchez — have additionally entered into a number of partnerships and agreements with different areas and nations this week.
Amongst them is the International Vitality Storage and Grids Pledge, an initiative began eventually 12 months’s COP convention that units a worldwide goal of deploying 1,500 gigawatts of power storage and constructing about 15.5 million miles of latest transmission infrastructure by 2030. California grew to become the primary subnational entity to affix the pledge, which has been backed by greater than 100 nations and organizations.
The pledge is an efficient begin, however the world wants extra than simply storage and transmission, Jacobson mentioned.
“California is shifting sooner than the U.S. as an entire, however to actually make inroads, California must additionally electrify transport, trade and buildings as quick as it’s constructing batteries, whereas rising offshore wind, utility photo voltaic, rooftop photo voltaic and enhanced geothermal,” he mentioned.
The state is working towards these targets, together with pushing ahead with a serious offshore wind undertaking that misplaced almost half a billion {dollars} in federal funding from the Trump administration this 12 months.
Different agreements signed at COP up to now this 12 months embrace joint partnerships and memoranda of understanding with Colombia, Chile, Nigeria, the Brazilian state of Pará and the German state of Baden-Württemberg on points comparable to wildfire prevention and response, sustainable city transportation and greenhouse gasoline emission reductions.
Occasions employees author Melody Gutierrez contributed to this report.
