California's Renewable Energy Problem

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California: ‘Let’s go carbon-free!’ Also California: ‘Let’s close down a carbon-free plant which supplies 15% of our power.’

Instead of curtailing overproduction, they should desalinate seawater with the excess. Fresh water IS something California needs more of.

As a California native I can confirm California’s suppositions of energy reliance is based of magical thinking and NIMBY

California's goal for 2050 will be greatly assisted by the fact that, by that time, most people will have moved to other states.

Obviously the answer here is to dedicate 45% of our population to running on tread mills to produce energy.

2:30 Storage cannot be in MW - Power unit. Storage/energy unis can be in MWh.

When you say “renewables” you are really talking about wind and solar. Geothermal and hydro don’t suffer from the battery dilemma.

Protest signs made from Hydrocarbons make me laugh.

5 Billion to build a battery that will last maybe a decade, or 15 billion for a nuclear power plant that produces 5 times the energy every hour than what that battery can store, and will produce that for the next 60 years. Yeah not absurd at all....

It would really be foolish to remove Nuclear entirely. It has been stagnating in innovation since the 70's. It needs improvements but it also needs investment for those improvements.

I love a deep dive into pumped hydro's ability to be that battery that's required to add more renewables to the grid.

What are they going to do in 20 to 30 years when millions of solar panels reach their end of life? Replace them at consumers cost? Abandon the entire project due to excessive costs? What about the recycling of the panels? Curently there is not one company or program to address this problem. And it WILL be a problem, a really big one. Good luck California.

Everyone is here being productive and critiquing your work. I'm still just laughing at "kill me now.pdf 23"

A note about 12:48: you can't just move the solar graph up, the variation size would also increase.

Excellent video! Small Modular Reactors, including Molten Salt Reactors, can provide reliable and safe and cost effective energy with minimal long term waste. Nuclear waste always comes up as a criticism, but MSR reactors produce only a small fraction compared to traditional Pressurized Water Reactors. Almost nobody is talking about the rare resources required to make efficient solar panels or wind turbine motors. Where do they come from? What happens when those resources are unavailable due to geopolitical or natural disasters? Then there is the decrease in efficiency of solar panels over time and the waste stream when they (and wind turbines and batteries) are at end of useful life. We do need wind and solar NOW, but also need to accelerate the research and development of SMR and MSR reactors NOW.

You should talk about progress in long-term power storage, such as using excess power to pump water to a higher elevated reservoir and then using a hydroelectric power as converting the water back into power.

Can you make a video talking about alternative energy storage methods besides batteries?

Nuclear is a good measure for filling the gaps. And sure the waste is a problem, but letting that hold back what really is one of the best energy generation methods would be just dumb. Since it's a problem we can work around. Having a lot of the grid be renewable power sources is good and ideal. But we are simply stuck from a practical stand point when it comes to filling in the gaps. And if we have to go and use a non renewable method, nuclear is the best option.

Please don t turn on the lights at night, heat or air-conditioning or charge your car until further notice. Welcome to California.