Energy Future: Powering Tomorrow’s Cleaner World

The Solar Duck Is Too Fat?! California’s Grid Crisis + Texas & Louisiana Shakeups

• Peter Kelly-Detwiler

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Renewable energy curtailment has hit new highs in California, with the state forced to turn away 3.4 million megawatt hours of clean electricity in 2024 - a 29% jump from the previous year. The solar "duck curve" continues to deepen as midday generation vastly outpaces demand, especially during spring months when solar output soars but air conditioning needs remain low. This imbalance leaves grid operators in a precarious position, requiring some gas plants to keep running during peak solar hours just to ensure they can ramp up quickly enough when evening demand spikes.

Looking forward, California is taking steps to address growing energy demands with CAISO approving nearly $5 billion in new infrastructure projects aimed at accommodating an anticipated 76,000 megawatts of new load by 2039. This massive growth projection stems from accelerating electric vehicle adoption, data center expansion, and broader electrification initiatives across the state's economy.

The renewable landscape in Texas narrowly avoided potential disaster as several bills that would have severely undermined wind and solar economics failed to pass the House. The proposed legislation would have imposed onerous requirements including mandatory gas backup purchases and one-to-one matching with dispatchable resources. Meanwhile, a promising 110 MW geothermal project is moving forward in western Texas, while Louisiana residents are left questioning who's responsible after 100,000 customers lost power during a holiday weekend. As Entergy and MISO point fingers at each other, the incident highlights the fragility of our aging grid infrastructure amid rising demands and extreme weather events. Subscribe to our channel for weekly updates on the rapidly evolving energy landscape and what it means for consumers and communities across America.

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Speaker 1:

I've got your energy stories for this, the first week of June 2025, and in the first one, the US Energy Information Administration reported that California's grid operator, caiso, curtailed 3.4 million megawatt hours of utility-scale wind and solar last year, up 29% from the year before. The majority of energy curtailed 93% came from solar. Because the solar duck's belly is so fat it drags on the ground, especially in the spring when solar output soars and grid demand is low in the absence of AC load or because there's inadequate transmission capability to move the juice, the EIA comments that some gas generation must remain running during the solar-saturated daylight hours so that it can ramp quickly enough to meet the evening peak. At times, demand net of solar may soar from close to zero in midday to over 25,000 megawatts in the evening. Exports can help move that power, as can batteries that time shift the energy, tummy-tucking the duck during the day and giving it a serious haircut in the evening. Also in California, caiso's Board of Governors has approved 31 new infrastructure projects worth $4.8 billion to be built over the next 10 to 15 years. These are meant to help CAISO address the anticipated 76,000 megawatts of new load coming on between now and 2039, brought about by expanding populations of electric vehicles, increased electrification in general, data center growth and general economic expansion.

Speaker 1:

As the Texas legislature wrapped up its activity for this year's session, several pieces of legislation that would have crippled future renewables contributions cleared the Senate but failed to make it through the House, to the relief of many concerned about the ability of the Texas grid to meet rapidly burgeoning demand. One bill would have required all large renewable installations to purchase gas as a backup guiding project economics. Another would have set up new fees and setback requirements, and a third would have stipulated that all renewables be matched on a one-for-one capacity basis with dispatchable assets, think gas. These proposed laws may resurface in two years, but in the meantime, one pro-renewable law that did pass was SB 1202. That speeds up the permitting process for home solar and storage installations. The legislation will permit authorized third parties, like licensed engineers, to review associated project documents and conduct required inspections, with a requirement to submit inspection results to regulators within 15 days. Once those approval docs are submitted, applicants can commence with construction and regulatory bodies must issue approvals within two business days of initial notification. That should speed up the solar and battery process considerably.

Speaker 1:

Carbon capture and storage projects have already been having a tough go of it. But many project futures just got a lot worse last week with the Department of Energy's cancellation of $3.7 billion in grants from its Office of Clean Energy demonstrations, most of which were focused on carbon capture and sequestration, were Calpine, exxonmobil, orsted and PPL. Many of these projects had been approved in the November to January interregnum between the Biden and Trump administrations. Advanced Geothermal Company, exceed Geoenergy and the Presidio Municipal Development District have inked a 110 megawatt geothermal power purchase agreement, which is intended to deliver more capacity and energy than current existing demand. The goal is to lure industries to the region, which is intended to deliver more capacity and energy than current existing demand. The goal is to lure industries to the region, which sits on the far western edge of the Texas power grid on the border with Mexico and also suffers from lengthy power outages on occasion. Commercial operations are expected to commence in late 2026, with an initial 9.9 megawatt delivery eventually expanding to the full 110 megawatts. Xseed is also collaborating with Austin Energy on a 5 megawatt geothermal project. Swiss solar manufacturer Meyer Berger announced it is shuttering its 1.4 gigawatt Arizona module production facility, laying off 282 employees. The company blamed lack of funds, though it said it's in discussion to restructure with an ad hoc group of bondholders. Meyerberger was notable as the sole US producer of heterojunction technology modules.

Speaker 1:

Days after a widespread and sudden power outage on Sunday, over the Memorial Day weekend that put nearly 100,000 customers in Entergy and Clico's Louisiana service territories in the dark, entergy apologized to its customers in an email saying that it was quote deeply disappointed by Sunday's outage event, which occurred when Entergy was directed by our reliability coordinator, miso, the Mid-Continent Independent System Operator, to bring many of our customers offline.

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Unquote. Miso called for rolling blackouts in response to low power supplies which resulted from outages at two nuclear units, in order to avoid a larger shutdown or potential grid failure. Entergy appeared to squarely place the blame on MISO, commenting, quote we regret that Entergy was not provided with enough prior notice of the outage to prepare our customers for the potential loss of power. The utility had initially stated the outage was a result of an unexpected outage at the Riverbend nuclear plant, but that plant went offline a full five days before the blackout, so there was plenty of time to prepare. Some observers speculate that a breakdown in planning and forecasting between Entergy and MISO may have been the real underlying issue, but the true cause or causes may take some time to fully uncover. Well, that's all for this week. Thanks for watching and we'll see you again soon.