Sacramento, California: In the race to create energy from the sun, California surpassed a major milestone during a recent heat wave, the state’s system operator reported September 4. More than 1,000 megawatts of solar power generation—equal to the size of two large gas-fired power plants — set new U.S. records twice in recent weeks.
The solar resources involved include large solar thermal and large solar and utility scale photovoltaic fields. It does not include rooftop solar or any solar that is behind the customer meter.