California Doubles its Clean Energy Targets for 2030

Vibrant Energy, Saint-Gobain Sign PPA for Round-the-Clock Renewable Energy

With an aim to reduce carbon footprints and increase the share of renewable energy in the total energy mix, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) on Thursday has adopted a new target for the electric sector that would more than double the state’s clean energy capacity installation by 2030.

However, one of the green group said that this new electric plan isn’t likely to cut enough carbon emissions from the state’s electricity consumption in order to meet it’s 2030 emissions reduction target.

As per the new target, the state will add 25 GW of additional renewable energy and storage resources by 2030. It also includes 8.9 GW of new battery storage, nearly 8 times the total installed battery capacity across the country in 2018.

The CPUC has set a target to achieve an electric sector greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction of 46 million metric tons (MMT) by 2030, which is approximately 56 percent below 1990 levels.

The new goal outpaces the state’s policy to trim economy-wide emissions to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030.

Following the decision, the CPUC has directed electricity providers’ i.e. investor-owned utilities, community choice aggregators, and electric service providers, to develop and submit their individual plans to the commission for review.

Electricity providers, in their plans, need to demonstrate how they will meet their share of the adopted 46 MMT target, as well as a deeper target of 38 MMT by 2030, the commission added.

Commenting on the development, Liane M. Randolph, CPUC Commissioner, said that “the decision adopted provides guidance to load-serving entities to go out and procure approximately double the amount of renewable and storage capacity that is currently online in the electric system in California.”

However, this decision does not restrict load-serving entities from planning for an even deeper target if they choose.

According to CPUC, the adopted target will provide general planning direction for how load-serving entities and policymakers can achieve these GHG reduction goals at low costs while ensuring electric service reliability.

After CPUC receive plans from load-serving entities later this year, it will decide on adopting a preferred system portfolio based on either the 46 MMT target or the 38 MMT target.