Solano EDC talks power at annual breakfast

The Solano Economic Development Corporation hosted its annual breakfast on Wednesday, gathering elected officials, business leaders and other local dignitaries at Bally Keal Estates. The EDC chose "Power Up Solano County" as the theme of this year's event and hosted a panel of energy experts to discuss how the power and utilities industries affect economic development in the region.

EDC President and CEO Chris Rico said power and energy issues create critical failures in economic development around the world. He thanked both public and private sector partners and recognized elected officials and their representatives.

After touching on job losses, Rico pivoted to his support for the Solano Shipyard and the opportunity to bring shipbuilding jobs to the county.

"I want to focus on opportunity because we have opportunities," he said.

Kevin Miller, Board Chair of the Solano EDC said the organization aligned with its members on strategy, leveraged the power of the board towards its aims and brought stakeholders together to discuss important topics, including power.

Miller said opportunity remains in the county event through the county's current job losses, housing crisis and economic woes. He said the EDC is seeking "the right balance of knowns and unknowns" in the year ahead, and has the opportunity to be a rational voice in the conversation.

"We have some headwinds. We have some loss of employment," Miller said.

Miller said he remains confident in the future of the county's economy.

"No matter what, there will be a better thing ahead and I am highly confident in that," he said.

Rico moderated the panel of industry experts and introduced each of them. Quinn Nakayama, Senior Director for Grid Research and Development at Pacific Gas and Electric, said his job is to grow the energy economy for all of California, the fourth-largest economy in the world. He said lowering energy costs is a major need for the energy sector to stabilize the energy economy.

Rico mentioned that PG&E has problems but asked Nakayama about what the company is doing to make things better for businesses and consumers. Nakayama said utility companies get accused of building more wires for the sole purpose of profit, but said this is not the case at PG&E.

"Our rates are too high," he said. "We need to figure out a way to bring in revenue, less the wire."

Nakayama said the company is looking for ways to put upgrades like high-speed fast chargers into people's homes.

"The more revenue I collect, the cheaper everyone's rates become," he said.

Lorzenzo Kristov, an energy consultant, said battery storage, solar panels and wind turbines can be scaled to the amount of space available, allowing smaller energy ventures to succeed on today's power market.

"I like to say electricity supply can become a local business," he said.

Edward Randolph, an energy consultant, said the Moss Landing BESS facility that saw a high-profile thermal runaway incident last year was uniquely poorly designed, and that much has changed in the industry since that fire. He said the state led the way in the deployment of grid-scale BESS, reaching over 16,000 Megawatts statewide.

"The problem with Moss Landing is, like you said, it never should have been built in the way it was in the first place," Rico said.

Benjamin Finkelor, Executive Director of the UC Davis Energy and Efficiency Institute, said energy loads due to lighting have dropped dramatically in recent years due to better lightbulb technology, and similar advancements continue to roll out for HVAC systems. He said the switch to electric vehicles will use less fossil fuels, but will require more electricity capacity, as will any data centers added to the region.

"We are going to see big load growth here," he said.

Arnab Pal, Executive Director of Deploy Action, said his organization focuses on lowering energy costs in the state. He said states like Delaware and Pennsylvania are short of their full capacity, a problem which California does not currently face due to BESS.

Rico noted controversial BESS projects near the Vaca-Dixon Substation from Middle River Power and NextEra Energy. Middle River Power, Next Era Energy and Pacific Gas and Electric were all sponsors of the event.

"Large-scale grid storage is vital. It's the reason we're not having blackouts or brownouts in California," Rico said.

Randolph said the state needs a combination of large-scale solar arrays and smaller, local agrovoltaic and ecovoltaic projects to provide the best cost and energy reliability.

Nakayama said the California Independent System Operator has to make sure enough energy is in the right parts of the grid at the right time to manage. He said CAISO will only locate new energy generation in the central and southern parts of the state in an effort to stabilize the electrons in the statewide grid. He said that would need to change and more conversations would need to happen to make local energy production possible.

"Policy makers and planners build the system, I gotta figure out how to run the damn thing," he said.

=Pal said generation grids have been fairly cheap and constant for the last 20 years in the state, but that problems remain in transmission and distribution. He called for state-level energy reform, including a shot clock for regulators to approve projects.

Nakayama said PG&E has to communicate with commissioners through a game of telephone with their staff. He said laws should be changed to allow for open conversations about how to

"We are guilty of putting us all into a place of ex parte," he said.

Finkleor encouraged the county to come together regarding energy solutions and make itself a model for the rest of the state.

"You have a unique set of resources here that I think position the county to lead," he said.

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This story was originally published April 29, 2026 at 8:15 PM.