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Solar becomes top source of electricity in California (pv-magazine-usa.com)

submitted 3 days ago by kalkulat@lemmy.world to c/science@lemmy.world

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"In the 12 months ending April 2025, solar generated 83.1 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity, compared to 81.6 TWh from natural gas."

"Nationally, solar generation continues to climb. In April, solar supplied 10.64% of U.S. electricity for the month (marking the first time the country crossed the 10% mark) and contributed 7.35% of generation over the rolling 12 months. California, by comparison, produced 42% of its electricity from solar at its seasonal peak in April, with May expected to push that figure even higher."

Good 'ol CA, long-time nation-leader.

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[–] Serinus@lemmy.world 16 points 3 days ago (9 children)

It makes a lot of sense. More people should (have) gotten in while the getting was good.

your roof gets sun
you own your house
you're going to stay there ~10 years
you don't have to go into debt at a bad rate to do it

You should have really looked into it while the 30% fed discount existed. I think it dies at the end of this year. Payoff time with a battery is something like 9-14 years, but after that it's 10-25 years of profit. And you don't have to worry about power outages anymore.

[–] DahGangalang@infosec.pub 2 points 3 days ago (5 children)

So I've heard a typical set up is still dependent on grid power (typical set up => able to push power back to the grid), and so during a power outage, you still lose power at your home. Its my understanding one of the components required for the hook up to The Grid requires continuous power (in case you need to push/pull power from the grid) and since it can't guarantee power from your panels, it gets that power from the grid (thus grid goes down, your whole home's power goes down.

Don't suppose you know more about this or can explain why this is/isn't the case? This setup seems unintuitive and undesirable to me, and so I'd love to have proof that's not the case, if it exists.

[–] Serinus@lemmy.world 7 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

True. They don't want you feeding power back into supposedly dead lines that they might be trying to work on.

If you get a battery, you'll get a power shutoff installed with it. That power shutoff allows you to separate entirely from the grid instantly and keep your system running off grid. Imo it's half the reason to get a battery.

You can get the shutoff without the battery, but it's not much cheaper.

I did a full writeup here. https://lemmy.world/post/32326227

[–] DahGangalang@infosec.pub 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Very nice writeup. Don't have the time to fully read, but did a quick skim. Def saved for later reference though.

You sound like you might have the latest news on the 30% tax credit. Do you know how much longer that'll be a thing/what you'd need to do now to get it?

[–] Serinus@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

Just from a quick search,

Legislation passed in July 2025, known as the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act," affects the Residential Clean Energy Credit.

The 30% credit will end on December 31, 2025, without a phase-out period.
Systems must be installed and commissioned by this date to receive the full credit.
This changes the previous plan under the Inflation Reduction Act, which included a gradual phase-down until 2034.

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