California’s Sun-Powered Summer

California's solar share has more than tripled since 2016 and continues to set records: the state generated nearly 70% of its June electricity from the sun.

California got more electricity from solar than natural gas for the first five months of 2026, and May 2026 marked the first time a large-scale power system surpassed 50% solar for an entire month. On July 10, CAISO's solar output hit 23 gigawatts, covering 72% of regional demand, the third time California broke its own solar record since June 1.

How did California grow solar so quickly?

It’s part technology and part policy.

The cost for solar panels fell more than 90% over 15 years because of manufacturing scale in China. That, combined with steady efficiency gains in each panel plus cheaper financing helped make solar panels cheap.

And on the policy side, California’s SB 100 mandate for 100% carbon-free electricity by 2045 gave developers a strong decades-long price signal that supported building. Paired with aggressive renewable portfolio standard targets and quicker interconnections for utility-scale projects, the sector kept compounding year over year.

The impact of batteries on California adopting solar

Other than cheaper panels, the key tech enabler in California has been batteries.

California's battery fleet now holds more than 21 gigawatts of capacity, up from under 700 megawatts in 2019. In early July, that fleet discharged a record 12.99 gigawatts at once, covering 36% of demand during the evening peak.

It helped that California adopted Net Energy Metering 3.0, which reduced the rate that homeowners with standalone solar panels received for selling back into the grid. The net result was that adding a home battery made financial sense and 37% of new behind-the-meter solar systems installed now include battery storage, according to GridStatus.io.