California’s Solar And Battery Boom Is Transforming The Power Grid

August 11, 2026

KQED

Andrew Campbell, Energy Institute Executive Director, discusses in KQED that California’s solar and battery boom is making the grid cleaner by storing excess daytime solar power for use when demand rises in the evening, while creating new challenges around managing excess generation.

“‘It’s very steadily and significantly becoming more green,’ said Andrew Campbell, executive director of the Energy Institute at UC Berkeley Haas. ‘The big change over the last 10 years is the dramatic growth in utility-scale solar and the growth of battery storage.’

‘California has more batteries installed than any other state or country at this point,’ Campbell said. ‘The batteries alone could probably satisfy about a quarter of the state’s demand at peak times and maybe even half the demand at off-peak times.'”

 

Photo: kqed.org