Renewable energy in California: Difference between revisions

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California is one of the leaders of renewable energy in the United States. It ranks second in the nation for renewable energy generation as a raw percentage,^[1]. Renewable sources provide 24.38% of California's energy production ranking it 25 by percentage of energy from renewable sources.^{[2] [3]}

California maintains one of the lowest per capita energy consumption rates in the United States, ranking 49th out of 50 states due to its mild climate and energy efficiency programs. For example, in August 2018, California's legislature authorized a bill that would make the state's electricity generation completely carbon-free by 2045.^[4]

When compared to other states in the U.S.A California has a slightly high percentage of renewable energy production. The percentage of renewable energy in California is perhaps made more notable by the particularly high population of the state, states with similar or higher percentages of renewable energy generally have lower populations. The energy production in California is 8.43% of the the nations total renewable energy production, the second highest in the country after Washington. ^{[5] [6]}

In 2017, California ranked second in the United States for conventional hydroelectric generation,^[1] obtaining 21% of its electricity through hydroelectric power sources. This was higher than the previous year when only 14% of its electricity was produced through hydroelectric power. A drought in 2012 led to a reduction in the generation of hydroelectric power. Because of this, in 2014 the Energy Commission of California began to track the conditions on how the drought started. Utilities responded to the decrease in precipitation and lack of hydroelectric power by making short-term market purchases and relying on other renewable sources of electricity. Recovery from the drought started in late 2016, partly due to increased precipitation that restored hydroelectric power to normal conditions.^[7]

In 2018, California ranked first in the United States for solar power generation.^[1] Over the past eight years, the prices of solar panels and solar power have fallen considerably. In 2010, only about 0.5% of California's electricity came from solar power, although this percentage rose to about 10% in 2016. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, solar electricity costs about 5 to 6 cents per kilowatt-hour, in part due to California's emphasis on solar power. This price is on par with the cost to produce electricity through a natural gas plant and is half of the cost of a nuclear power facility.^[8] On December 5, 2018, the California Building Standards Commission voted unanimously to add energy standards to the state building code, officially making California the first state in the United States to require that new homes, built in 2020 and later, be solar powered.^[9]

In recent years, California's electricity generation from solar power has increased substantially. There have been issues with solar power plants producing too much electricity for the transmission grid to handle and the state to use. In March 2017, California produced so much extra solar power it paid Arizona to take the electricity, saving Arizona substantial amounts of money on electricity.^[8]

In 2017, California ranked first in the United States in geothermal power generation.^[1] California is located on the Pacific Ring of Fire, with the conjunctions of tectonic plates providing California the largest potential for producing geothermal energy generation in the country. Most of California's geothermal plants are located slightly north of San Francisco in Lake Folsom and Sonoma Counties. This is due to the Geysers Geothermal Resource Area, which produces electricity from dry steam. This area has been producing electricity since the mid-1960s, with dry steam in this location existing in only one of two places in the world.^[10]

There are 43 operating geothermal power plants in California, which produced 11,745 gigawatt-hours of electricity in 2017. This in-state generation, combined with 700 GWh of imported geothermal energy, led geothermal energy to contribute 5.69% of the state's total electricity usage in 2017.^[10]

California ranked first in the United States in power generation from biomass in 2017.^[1] Biomass-based electricity in California produced 5,767 gigawatt-hours of electricity in 2017, contributing to about 2.8 percent of the state's total energy usage. There are 93 operating biomass-based power plants in California.^[11]

California's biomass power mostly comes from waste-to-energy based power plants. There are four specific types of biomass power generation in California: biomass, digester gas (anaerobic digestion), landfill gas, and municipal solid waste. In addition to these four categories, there is one biomass electricity plant in the state that uses chipped-up forest residue as fuel for electricity generation.^[11]

California ranked fourth in the United States in wind power generation in 2017, behind Texas, Oklahoma, and Iowa.^[12] Wind power in California successfully generated about 13,500 gigawatt-hours of electricity in 2016; this contributes to about 6.81 percent of the state's electricity usage. This does not account for homes and farms that use personal turbines to produce power.^[13]