California obtains almost 80% of their daily needs from solar, and is the world’s fourth largest economy. Almost the entire US could run off of solar and batteries based on current utility scale costs of both technologies (but will likely continue to use a mix of nuclear, renewables, batteries, transmission, demand response, and fossil gas for filling in the gaps as learning curves continue to deliver cheaper low carbon energy).
It's simply a matter of will (or in the case of the US, lack thereof).
It's simply a matter of will (or in the case of the US, lack thereof).
https://blog.gridstatus.io/caiso-beats-the-heat/
https://blog.gridstatus.io/caiso-batteries-apr-2024/
https://docs.nrel.gov/docs/fy04osti/35097.pdf
https://elements.visualcapitalist.com/how-much-land-power-us...
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/31072025/inside-clean-ene...
https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/solar-electricity-e...
https://electrek.co/2025/06/20/batteries-are-so-cheap-now-so...
https://cleantechnica.com/2025/04/26/there-is-one-clear-winn...