California breaks record and creates solar power for 6 million homes in one day

Last Tuesday, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that California produced electricity for 6 million homes with its solar power.

The record-breaking number is nearly twice that of what it produced two years ago and is only counting the electricity produced at power plants, not on individual houses.  The rooftops are reported to produce another 50% of that number on top of the 6 million.

“There is just over 4,211 megawatts of rooftop solar in California,” said Steven Greenly of California ISO.  “I can tell you we had a great solar day.”

An aerial photograph of the Solar One Energy Plant in the Mojave Desert near Daggett, California.

The state plans to produce a consistent 33 percent of it's energy from renewables by 2020 daily and this high output is a sign that we are almost there.  Last week, during the high output, the state created 29% of it's energy from solar, wind, geothermal and hydro-electricity combined.  There is no sign of slowing down.

“California is taking the lead, there is no question about it,” says state governor, Jerry Brown.