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

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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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I've got your energy stories for this, the first week
of June 2025, and in the firstone, the US Energy Information
Administration reported thatCalifornia's grid operator,
caiso, curtailed 3.4 millionmegawatt hours of utility-scale
wind and solar last year, up 29%from the year before.
The majority of energycurtailed 93% came from solar.

(00:21):
Because the solar duck's bellyis so fat it drags on the ground
, especially in the spring whensolar output soars and grid
demand is low in the absence ofAC load or because there's
inadequate transmissioncapability to move the juice,
the EIA comments that some gasgeneration must remain running
during the solar-saturateddaylight hours so that it can

(00:41):
ramp quickly enough to meet theevening peak.
At times, demand net of solarmay soar from close to zero in
midday to over 25,000 megawattsin the evening.
Exports can help move thatpower, as can batteries that
time shift the energy,tummy-tucking the duck during
the day and giving it a serioushaircut in the evening.
Also in California, caiso'sBoard of Governors has approved

(01:06):
31 new infrastructure projectsworth $4.8 billion to be built
over the next 10 to 15 years.
These are meant to help CAISOaddress the anticipated 76,000
megawatts of new load coming onbetween now and 2039, brought
about by expanding populationsof electric vehicles, increased
electrification in general, datacenter growth and general

(01:28):
economic expansion.
As the Texas legislature wrappedup its activity for this year's
session, several pieces oflegislation that would have
crippled future renewablescontributions cleared the Senate
but failed to make it throughthe House, to the relief of many
concerned about the ability ofthe Texas grid to meet rapidly
burgeoning demand.
One bill would have requiredall large renewable

(01:49):
installations to purchase gas asa backup guiding project
economics.
Another would have set up newfees and setback requirements,
and a third would havestipulated that all renewables
be matched on a one-for-onecapacity basis with dispatchable
assets, think gas.
These proposed laws mayresurface in two years, but in
the meantime, one pro-renewablelaw that did pass was SB 1202.

(02:13):
That speeds up the permittingprocess for home solar and
storage installations.
The legislation will permitauthorized third parties, like
licensed engineers, to reviewassociated project documents and
conduct required inspections,with a requirement to submit
inspection results to regulatorswithin 15 days.
Once those approval docs aresubmitted, applicants can

(02:34):
commence with construction andregulatory bodies must issue
approvals within two businessdays of initial notification.
That should speed up the solarand battery process considerably
.
Carbon capture and storageprojects have already been
having a tough go of it.
But many project futures justgot a lot worse last week with
the Department of Energy'scancellation of $3.7 billion in

(02:56):
grants from its Office of CleanEnergy demonstrations, most of
which were focused on carboncapture and sequestration, were
Calpine, exxonmobil, orsted andPPL.
Many of these projects had beenapproved in the November to
January interregnum between theBiden and Trump administrations.
Advanced Geothermal Company,exceed Geoenergy and the

(03:20):
Presidio Municipal DevelopmentDistrict have inked a 110
megawatt geothermal powerpurchase agreement, which is
intended to deliver morecapacity and energy than current
existing demand.
The goal is to lure industriesto the region, which is intended
to deliver more capacity andenergy than current existing
demand.
The goal is to lure industriesto the region, which sits on the
far western edge of the Texaspower grid on the border with
Mexico and also suffers fromlengthy power outages on

(03:41):
occasion.
Commercial operations areexpected to commence in late
2026, with an initial 9.9megawatt delivery eventually
expanding to the full 110megawatts.
Xseed is also collaboratingwith Austin Energy on a 5
megawatt geothermal project.
Swiss solar manufacturer MeyerBerger announced it is
shuttering its 1.4 gigawattArizona module production

(04:04):
facility, laying off 282employees.
The company blamed lack offunds, though it said it's in
discussion to restructure withan ad hoc group of bondholders.
Meyerberger was notable as thesole US producer of
heterojunction technologymodules.
Days after a widespread andsudden power outage on Sunday,

(04:24):
over the Memorial Day weekendthat put nearly 100,000
customers in Entergy and Clico'sLouisiana service territories
in the dark, entergy apologizedto its customers in an email
saying that it was quote deeplydisappointed by Sunday's outage
event, which occurred whenEntergy was directed by our
reliability coordinator, miso,the Mid-Continent Independent

(04:45):
System Operator, to bring manyof our customers offline.
Unquote.
Miso called for rollingblackouts in response to low
power supplies which resultedfrom outages at two nuclear
units, in order to avoid alarger shutdown or potential
grid failure.
Entergy appeared to squarelyplace the blame on MISO,
commenting, quote we regret thatEntergy was not provided with

(05:06):
enough prior notice of theoutage to prepare our customers
for the potential loss of power.
The utility had initiallystated the outage was a result
of an unexpected outage at theRiverbend nuclear plant, but
that plant went offline a fullfive days before the blackout,
so there was plenty of time toprepare.
Some observers speculate that abreakdown in planning and

(05:27):
forecasting between Entergy andMISO may have been the real
underlying issue, but the truecause or causes may take some
time to fully uncover.
Well, that's all for this week.
Thanks for watching and we'llsee you again soon.