Unfortunately, this Bloomberg report is fake news when they left out a critical limitation from the underlying paper:
California power agency modeling shows 24/7 renewable power can be cost-competitive.
Source: Round-the-Clock Clean Power Doesn’t Cost a Fortune, Study Shows – Bloomberg
Except this applies only to one electric utility in central California and per their own underlying paper:
The results presented in this paper are specific to Peninsula Clean Energy and may not be necessarily generalizable to other entities in California or elsewhere
The reporter has misrepresented the research work to imply that by 2025, “round the clock clean power” is achievable at cost competitive rates, for all.
The reporter read the press release, mentions it’s based on a published paper, but perhaps never read the underlying paper and was not aware of the study’s limitations.
The study and model is true for the small Peninsula Clean Energy utility. But the study authors say it does not apply elsewhere. This might be because California is blessed with a wide variety of renewable resources: hydro, sunlight and wind. Many places do not have these in abundance. The paper also notes that their utility is located in a very moderate climate, and has relatively cool summers too – meaning less energy used for air conditioning.
Misrepresenting climate information – which happens every day – does not inspire confidence in this subject. Stick to facts and logic, accurately reported.
