Nearly 100% Of New California Electricity To Be Solar In 2H 2013

[jpak]

http://cleantechnica.com/2013/05/16/nearly-100-of-new-california-electricity-to-be-solar-in-2h-2013/

Herman Trabish of Greentech Media has happened across a pretty interesting find — 97% of new electricity generation capacity in line to be added to the California grid in the second half (2H) of 2012 is from solar power projects.

This is according to the California Independent System Operator (the ISO), as published in the 2012 Annual Report on Market Issues and Performance. In total, 1,633 megawatts of generation capacity are in line to be added to the grid in 2H 2013. A whopping 1,581 megawatts (MW) are from solar projects. 52 MW are from biomass projects.

That’s a big shift from the first half of the year (and, well, all of previous history). Herman writes: “By the end of the first half of the year, the ISO will have added 3,391 megawatts of nameplate capacity, of which 2,296 megawatts will be natural gas, 565 megawatts will be wind and 530 megawatts will be solar.” Here’s a chart for a visual display of these points and the situation in 2012:

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[kristopher]

1. Globally now about 100GW of solar electric

That includes large and small projects.

Just small scale solar (<1MW) is forecast to install another 200GW by 2018.