Top all-time · #4049
Grid Status Exports
Company blog · blog.gridstatus.ioother
Grid Status Exports is the company blog at blog.gridstatus.io. Since 2023, 19 different Hacker News readers have linked it 56 times, most often “Batteries Taking Charge of the California Grid”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-27, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (29) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN commenters cite this blog's charts and analyses of California and Texas grid data, especially on batteries and solar, as sources in debates about electricity policy and nuclear power.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 29 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Current affairs of the electrical grid
Most-linked posts?
- Batteries Taking Charge of the California Grid8 people · 16 mentions · first linked 2024-05-07
- /caiso-solar-storage-spring-2025/4 people · 8 mentions · first linked 2025-06-23
- Peak Conditions Reveal a Changed California Grid3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2024-09-16
- /caiso-beats-the-heat/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2025-02-22
- Net Load Ramps: How Texas and California Incorporate Renewable Energy2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2023-08-03
- Byte Blackouts: How large data center loads are surfacing new issues2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2025-04-18
- Investigating Apple's Clean Grid Forecast2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2023-12-21
What Hacker News says?
> I suggest you to understand that 4h storage is a totally unrealistic requirement If California simply continues their current storage rollout they will have 10 hours of storage at peak demand and 20 hours of storage at average demand when the warranties for what they build today run out in 20 years. This would coincide with any new nuclear power plant project starting today beginning commercial operations. If Vogt…
Comment linking /caiso-batteries-apr-2024/
on “Google commits to buying power generated by nuclear-energy startup Kairos Power”Submitted Breaking down a record-setting day on the Texas grid as a story · 209 points
HN discussionCalifornia would like a word with you. Gas generators are increasingly being forced off the grid with storage. https://blog.gridstatus.io/caiso-batteries-apr-2024/ Storage costs are today lower than the most aggressive projection for 2050 according to one widely cited US DoE study from 2023 . https://substack.com/home/post/p-149971818
Comment linking /caiso-batteries-apr-2024/
on “Google commits to buying power generated by nuclear-energy startup Kairos Power”Submitted How the electricity markets respond to a nuclear trip as a story · 113 points
HN discussionYou seem to not be very updated, all the while holding extremely strong beliefs. Storage delivering nuclear scale energy day in and day out in California: https://blog.gridstatus.io/caiso-batteries-apr-2024/ Storage plummeting in cost 20% YoY, now at $66/kWh. https://reneweconomy.com.au/mind-blowing-battery-cell-prices...
Comment linking /caiso-batteries-apr-2024/
on “New LLM optimization technique slashes memory costs”Submitted Batteries Taking Charge of the California Grid as a story · 29 points
HN discussionNot entirely. California now handles its peak using solar+storage quite effectively. https://blog.gridstatus.io/caiso-solar-storage-spring-2025/ It's not entirely 1:1. CA has about 20GW of solar production, and the solar+storage together completely replace about 5GW of fossil capacity. (But don't discount wind. Wind+solar combine pretty well, and if you throw that in, you'll see that CA is actually replacing about 1…
Comment linking /caiso-solar-storage-spring-2025/
on “Solar power has begun to transform the world’s energy system”Submitted Batteries Taking Charge of the California Grid as a story · 9 points
HN discussionGP is basing their comment on 5 year old data. As of April 2025 the duck curve problem is solved - https://blog.gridstatus.io/caiso-solar-storage-spring-2025/ . Mid day demand increased because of battery charging, smoothing out the load. The California grid is looking immensely healthy, being a net exporter most days. Will it handle an extended heatwave that also affects other states simultaneously? You’re right, w…
Comment linking /caiso-solar-storage-spring-2025/
on “California invests in battery energy storage, leaving rolling blackouts behind”Submitted Byte Blackouts: How large data center loads are surfacing new issues as a story · 4 points
HN discussionI'm hungry for good news about technical solutions working - especially right now when Trump just killed the US's largest solar project (6.2 GW in Nevada), ended USDA solar support for farms, and posted "We will not approve...Solar". So I wanted to check if California's battery story holds up. The data is actually encouraging. Peak demand hit 48,323 MW in 2024 - higher than the 2020 blackout year's 47,121 MW [1]. We…
Comment linking /caiso-beats-the-heat/
on “California invests in battery energy storage, leaving rolling blackouts behind”Submitted Batteries Have Reshaped ERCOT's Ancillary Services Procurement as a story · 4 points
HN discussionNuclear power does not complement renewables at all. Why should someone buy extremely expensive nuclear powered electricity when renewables or stored renewables are available? Which means we have to factor in the cost of a nuclear plant being forced off the market because no one is buying its electricity during the day and they have to amortize the cost over a 40% capacity factor instead of 85% like they target. And…
Comment linking /caiso-solar-storage-spring-2025/
on “Solar leads EU electricity generation as renewables hit 54%”Submitted Net Load Ramps: How Texas and California Incorporate Renewable Energy as a story · 4 points
HN discussionBatteries already solve that. https://blog.gridstatus.io/caiso-solar-storage-spring-2025/
Comment linking /caiso-solar-storage-spring-2025/
on “CO2 batteries that store grid energy take off globally”Submitted Ercot is on a hot streak during a cold winter as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSummarizing from the article, this link [1] shows that there were more sources of generation that ERCOT didn't ask to come online. Specifically, all the capacity that could come online with 5 minutes was online except for a tiny 130 MW of generation. [1] https://blog.gridstatus.io/content/images/2024/08/ERCOT-Reca... Instead of calling for something that needed more than 5 minutes, ERCOT relied on all the batteries…
Comment linking /content/images/2024/08/ERCOT-Recap-8.19-8.20.2024--3-.png
on “Breaking down a record-setting day on the Texas grid”Submitted Year in Review: Solar Generation in 2024 as a story · 3 points
HN discussionCalifornia 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 ca…
Comment linking /caiso-batteries-apr-2024/
on “U.S. Emissions Rise 4.2%, China's Fall 2.7%”Submitted Peak Conditions Reveal a Changed California Grid as a story · 3 points
HN discussion> It's absorbing a third of California's generation at solar peak and then delivering a third of demand in the evening. Citations: https://blog.gridstatus.io/caiso-beats-the-heat/#batteries-e... https://english.elpais.com/economy-and-business/2024-08-25/b... https://www.energy.ca.gov/data-reports/energy-almanac/califo... https://app.electricitymaps.com/zone/US-CAL-CISO/72h/hourly
Comment linking /caiso-beats-the-heat/
on “'Unstoppable force' of solar power propels world to 40% clean electricity”Submitted What Happens When a Nuclear Plant Suddenly Shuts Off? as a story · 3 points
HN discussionWhich means nuclear and renewables are the worst possible companions imaginable. Nuclear and renewables compete for the same slice of the grid. The cheapest most inflexible where all other power generation has to adapt to their demands. They are fundamentally incompatible. For every passing year more existing reactors will spend more time turned off because the power they produce is too expensive. Let alone insanely…
Comment linking /caiso-batteries-apr-2024/
on “Nuclear reactors a mile underground promise safe, cheap power”Submitted Mapping Wholesale Electricity Prices in the United States as a story · 3 points
HN discussionThere's a blog post on net ramps, which covers a lot of it: https://blog.gridstatus.io/net-load-ramps/
Comment linking /net-load-ramps/
on “California Electricity Mix Live Dashboard”Submitted Batteries Taking Charge of the California Grid as a story · 3 points
HN discussionHeyo everyone, cool to see this here. I'm a co-founder and head of product at Grid Status if anyone has specific questions about the site. I see some energy market questions here about CAISO and natural gas, net load, etc., so here's a link to a blog we wrote last year that covers some of these topics, might be helpful[0]. The market has been setting a bunch of records recently, which you can see here[1]. Also, as a…
Comment linking /balancing-act/
on “California Electricity Mix Live Dashboard”Submitted What to Expect on the Grid During the Total Solar Eclipse as a story · 3 points
HN discussionBattery rollout in California has changed this situation over the last few years https://blog.gridstatus.io/caiso-batteries-apr-2024/ > In the figure above, what was previously a defined peak in natural gas generation each evening has eroded into a plateau in 2024. That is because batteries are assisting with the predictable, but large, swings in solar output each day. These rapid ramps have been largely managed by…
Comment linking /caiso-solar-storage-spring-2025/
on “New York to build one of first U.S. nuclear-power plants in generation”Submitted Investigating Apple's Clean Grid Forecast as a story · 3 points
HN discussion
