California Adds 8,600 MW New Renewable Power: Meets RPS Goals

California Adds 8,600 MW New Renewable Power: Meets RPS Goals

Written by Susan Kraemer

Published on September 8th, 20093 Comments

Posted in alternative energy, carbon emissions, politics

Since the Renewable Portfolio Standard began in 2002, the California Public Utilities Commission has now approved contracts for more than 8,600 megawatts of new renewable energy, nearly all of it solar, signed with the state’s largest utilities. Most of the state’s renewable energy already on the grid till now has been wind power.

As of June, the CPUC total was 8,334 megawatts, but in August CPUC approved PG&E contracts with BrightSource totalling an additional 1,310 megawatts.

It’s an unusual contract. PG&E agreed to pay a higher electricity rate if Brightsource fails to secure a Department of Energy loan guarantee to help finance the construction of the two solar plants in the Mojave desert, per Todd Woody at the NYT. And in return, Brightsource will pay PG&E royalties based on the worldwide sales and licensing of BrightSource’s solar Power Tower technology.

The Federal loan guarantee program is designed to promote development of renewable energy by allowing companies like BrightSource to obtain lower-cost financing to build large-scale solar farms.

“Given the current credit crisis, new renewable energy projects face financing risk,” wrote the utility commissioners in approving the deal. “We believe that the milestones achieved to date on its D.O.E. Loan Guarantee application and BrightSource’s project development experience will put it at an advantage when seeking financing.”

California’s RPS (Renewable Portfolio Standards) legislation signed in 2002 requires the state’s utilities to get 20% of their energy from renewable sources by 2010 and have it up and running on our grid by 2013.

At last count, we were a bit short of installed capacity, with 13% on the grid by 2008. But in a burst of activity last year more new capacity was installed just in 2008 than in the first four years of the RPS. So far 2009 looks like it could be more than 2008.

At just the half year mark, another 1,574 megawatts were approved, and with the additional contracts from BrightSource, the total is now 8,600 Megawatts approved. The CPUC is still reviewing 13 more signed contracts which would add another 5,941 MW.

The initial 2002 RPS legislation (SB1078, authored by Senator Byron Sher) had required utilities to get 20% by 2017 of renewable power - not counting nuclear or traditional hydroelectric as renewable.

Then in 2006, Palo Alto Senator Joe Simitian sped up the timetable to just four years to meet the 20% RPS: 2010. But it allowed a three year window; till 2013, to actually get the power onto the grid with SB107.

The lag time is because while contracts are easy enough to sign; actual approval and permitting and transmission issues can slow the process. Many contracts are signed but awaiting approval with the CPUC. There is no shortage of renewable energy companies wanting to do business with the state. Despite the speeded up schedule; California utilities are generally on track to meet the 2013 goal.

By comparison, Texas now produces about 8,000 megawatts just of wind power, and is now second in wind power only to Germany with its 22,000 megawatts of wind power.

(Because countries in Europe are more comparable in size to our states here, it is more useful to compare European nations to our states, rather than to the USA as a whole, as is commonly done.) Germany has 82 million people in 138 thousand square miles. More sparsely populated Texas has 24 million people in twice that size - 269 thousand square miles.

California has 37 million people in 164 thousand square miles, and we use 265,000 gigawatthours of electricity annually - so 20% would be about 51,000 gigawatthours annually of renewable power.

California is on target to meet that. As my high school motto put it: Aim High