How does solar work at night?

The Valley of the Sun is a great place to invest in solar energy. By 2025, SRP is doubling its solar generation. This means nearly 50% of the energy SRP delivers will be carbon-free. Our commitment to solar doesn’t stop there. We’re investing in solar battery storage to light up Arizona nights with Arizona sunshine.

 

[josephmagers]

I was a long term (decades) homeowner & SRP customer who supported home energy audit's & residential solar installation. I think SRP made a strategic mistake by shifting focus from residential solar production and use to commercial solar farms. Yes, SRP & the government tax collectors make more money through cultivating the sale of electricity, but that's at the cost of efficiency to the local customers. I watched SRP boost (install) additional distribution in my older neighborhood to support the growing demand at a time they could have supported local generation to reduce demand and increasing efficiency of utility utilization. Now instead of reducing utility cost, SRP is pursuing adding an additional financial burden to customers to support commercial battery storage. Had SRP been supportive of, instead of undermining residential solar installation they could now upscale local generation to include local battery storage.

It would have been a win, win, win for the customer. Lower long term utility cost as local solar is being paid off & lower utility capital cost as the customer was providing free utility infrastructure & maintenance. Increased efficiency of electrical utilization by both residential customer & utility, & the avoidance of additional utility & tax burdens in support of yet another commercial cost.

It was a sad day when SRP jumped on the California lie that residential solar was harming the electrical grid and not paying their “fair share”. It's amazing how that political phrase keeps being used by morons pursing a failure agenda.

[grantmccoy]

They have an easier road to 50% renewable energy because of the hydroelectric potential.

I think it's a riddle that can't be ideally solved with conventional means.

In my opinion, the best thing about solar is its potential to pull energy from the environment, not the fact that it's clean or renewable. The machines themselves are never clean or renewable, so it's basically only a clean facade (whitewash, or "greenwashing" I guess). However, if it means cooling down the cities, it would be worth it. I can't imagine it would though. It's really like the whole global warming narrative. Apply the inverse logic with ways to cool the planet, and all of a sudden, no human activity could ever make a large enough of a difference to bring down the temperature. It's a scientific/political double standard. It's just drama.