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California Has Got Really Good at Building Giant Batteries


California's battery power capacity rose from 500 megawatts in 2018 to nearly 16,000 megawatts in 2025. Nearly a quarter of America's battery capacity is now in California alone, according to Bloomberg. At their daily peak around 8pm, batteries can provide as much as 30% of the state's electricity...

The batteries charge in the afternoon when solar power is cheap and release energy in the evenings when Californians get home and crank up their air conditioners. In the middle of the day, when the sun is strongest, as much as three-quarters of the state's electricity can come from solar. Mark Jacobson, an engineering professor at Stanford University, told Economist that most days this year contained periods when solar, hydropower and wind, helped by batteries, met 100% of California's demand -- even though just 54% of the state's electricity generation comes from renewables.

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