CanaryMedia: "California was mostly solar-powered in May—a global first."
"While the Trump administration is busy pointing out that the sun doesn’t shine at night, solar is breaking records around the world, including in sunny California." Solar panels produced 51% of California’s electricity in May, the first time the clean energy source surpassed the halfway mark for an entire month. Amazingly, for once the data included both utility-scale + rooftop distributed solar installations on residences + commercial + industrial locations.
"This isn’t just a milestone moment for California; it’s a milestone for the entire world." Think tank Ember says the state is the globe’s first major economy to cross the 50% threshold. (Hungary, at 47% in June 2025, is knocking at the door, though it has a far smaller GDP.)
"Natural gas is the only fossil fuel that California power plants burn at appreciable levels, and solar is steadily squeezing it out of the system," as it must. "Case in point: Solar outproduced gas not only during its record month of May but throughout every month in 2026 leading up to it, too."
Solar could not have reached these heights alone. "It needed batteries to get here—and California has that crucial energy storage in spades." The California Independent System Operator [CAISO], which manages most of the state’s grid, now boasts 16 gigawatts [GW] of batteries that can shift abundant midday solar production to later in the evening. "It’s not uncommon for batteries to meet over one-quarter of the state’s electricity demand for a portion of the night."
Dan McCarthy, the author of the article, calculated that storage had grown by—26,129% over the last decade, 'a number so cartoonishly large' that he was almost hesitant to print it. The energy revolution, the progress toward an 'electrostate' is happening in real time, racing to solve our climate dilemma while we still have time.
