With several megawatts of new Solar PV set to come on line by year end in California, the state embodies the struggle between Renewables and Natural Gas, the 'frenemies' of the clean power generation market.
Solar capacity rose substantially this year already, with daily peak generation above 8GW on most days. Hydro is also up due to rainfall of late. As November begins, renewables are taking an ever larger bite out of the pizza. Here is CAISO marketshare for NOV, Year on Year, showing that Renewables+Hydro is up over last year. (Wind is the largest contributor to daily volatility in this measurement).
Because total generation hasn't changed much YOY, this reduces the call on natural gas generation. Further exacerbating that situation is the heavy Columbia River streamflow, which is sending more renewable imported power to CA, for now.
