California’s big solar farms have surpassed a new milestone amid the late summer heat, reaching one gigawatt of electrical generation capacity, the state’s main grid operator said Tuesday.
The state’s large-scale solar fields hit a new peak in production on Friday at nearly 1.1 gigawatts, or 1.1 billion watts, according to the California Independent System Operator.
That peak output, which does not account for rooftop solar and other small-scale generation, is enough to offset two large-scale natural gas power plants. It is also close to the peak output for a single nuclear reactor at either Diablo Canyon or the currently idled San Onofre plants.
