What is renewable energy?
Renewable energy, often referred to as “clean energy,” comes from naturally replenished and unlimited sources, like wind and solar. Renewable energy, through the use of technology, captures these naturally occurring energy sources and converts it to electricity for use in our modern society. California is one of the leading states for renewable energy investments. As it stands, California considers, biomass, geothermal, hydropower, solar, and wind sources to all be renewable forms of energy.
Source: California Energy Commission - 2018
Communities Need Clean Energy Resilience
The need for resilience to climate-related impacts is greater than ever. Extreme weather events and devastating wildfires pollute our air and can cause mass power outages that leave families in triple digit temperatures with no A/C. That’s why it’s so critical that communities have more support to develop clean energy resilience projects. The goal is to ensure that households and/or critical facilities can be powered by clean energy to keep the lights on when the main grid is disrupted.
What’s a clean energy resilience project?
They come in many shapes and sizes and can serve just a few or hundreds of people with reliable backup power. It could be a solar array on a hospital with battery storage, or a microgrid that controls and directs electricity to and from any combination of houses, community centers, and critical facilities like wastewater treatment plants or fire stations – any place that can provide back-up power when the main grid is down.
What is the “main grid,” and why is it important to have clean, local back-up power?
The “main grid” is the interconnected system of:
power plants (where electricity is generated),
transmission lines (the ones that serve electricity across long distances)
power substations (where the high voltage from transmission lines is converted to safer levels so that energy can be safely and efficiently delivered to communities), and
distribution lines (the ones that come directly to your home).
While the main grid is very important to meeting energy needs, it is prone to many kinds of disruptions that leave communities in the dark at critical times. That could be a tree knocking down a power line in a windstorm or extreme heat that drives up our energy use and forces the California Independent System Operator to issue rolling outages to avoid a blackout of the main grid. That’s why clean energy resilience projects are so important - they can help ensure your home stays cool in a heatwave and, as a bonus, save you money on your utility bill through a program called net energy metering.
Learn more here about The Climate Center’s work to help foster safer, energy-resilient communities.
Community Choice Drives Local Renewable Energy Development
A Community Choice Energy program would allow the City of Stockton to buy electricity at competitive rates on behalf of Stockton residents and businesses and reinvest money back into the community over time to meet specific needs. The investor-owned utility (in Stockton, that’s PG&E) would still own the poles and wires and deliver the electricity procured by the Community Choice agency (CCA) to its customers. Over time, CCAs are able to generate reserve funds that can be reinvested in the community. As collaborators, coordinators, and customers, CCAs often support local clean energy projects that create jobs, result in energy cost savings, and offer resilience to the impacts of power outages. For more context, check out this list of both small- and utility-scale renewable energy projects CCAs have initiated in California.
The 23 CCAs in California have invested in 6,000 megawatts of new renewable energy sources, creating thousands of construction jobs in the process; serve more than 11 million customers with affordable, clean energy; and avoid the emission of more than 940,000 metric tons of climate pollution every year. Learn more here about The Climate Center’s work to help the City of Stockton pursue establishing or joining a Community Choice program.
Transition Away From Fossil Fuels
The need to transition away from the burning of fossil fuels for energy is more dire now more than ever. The recently released 2021 IPCC report on the global effects of climate change are daunting. The report states that, “human influence has warmed the climate at a rate that is unprecedented in at least the last 2000 years.” This warming has increased the likelihood and frequency of severe weather disasters such as hurricanes, droughts, and ice storms.
Interested in going solar? Check out the links below:
GRID Alternatives: Energy For All - Free or low-cost solar installation!
Calif Energy Commission GoSolar CA
EcoWatch