To solve California’s power demands, regulators need to add more clean energy, faster

The consequences of climate change have stacked the deck against California’s electricity grid this summer. Crippling drought has decimated hydroelectric power supplies our state has historically relied on just as blistering heat has sent demand for electricity skyrocketing.

After months of scrambling to cobble together enough electricity to meet demand, regulators recently authorized contracts for new climate-warming and polluting fossil fuel power plants, to be located at existing gas plants. The decision — in the midst of climate chaos — was disheartening to say the least, but it wasn’t surprising.

Clean energy advocates like myself have been ringing the alarm bell for years that regulators are not adding enough clean energy to meet demand in a hotter and drier California. To address grid reliability and resiliency concerns, we must move faster to get renewable energy resources like wind, solar, and battery storage onto the grid.

In the absence of clean energy this summer, California has turned to more expensive and dirty gas power. As a result, electricity prices have soared a stunning 150% in just three months. To keep energy bills affordable and to address the root cause of the climate crisis, we need to speed up our deployment of renewable energy — which is now the world’s most affordable energy resource.

Delaying the transition to clean energy also has major health costs. The emergency declaration earlier this month that paved the way for the fossil fuel procurement waived air pollution restrictions on gas plants and diesel backup generators when they’re used during grid emergencies. This will mean more pollution in communities that already breathe some of the nation’s dirtiest air.

Diesel generations, especially, can have devastating health impacts. The California Air Resources Board estimates that an uncontrolled 1 megawatt diesel engine operating for only 250 hours per year could increase the cancer risk to residents within one city block by as much as 50 percent.

The work to shut down these newly approved, health-harming fossil fuel power plants long before their five-year contract expires begins now. There are several common-sense steps that regulators should take.

First, California needs to move much faster to add new clean energy resources to the grid. Accelerating the state’s clean electricity goal to 100% by 2030 instead of 2045 would jump-start clean energy procurement now. More ambitious mid-term goals for the power sector could also help drive immediate deployment of clean resources, including battery storage, which can be added to the grid quickly ahead of next summer.

Second, California should implement a suite of energy efficiency and demand response programs that can help Calfiornians lower their energy use and save on their utility bills. Upgrading electric appliances with more efficient alternatives that use less energy, and implementing programs that help shift energy use to the middle of the day — when energy from solar is abundant and affordable — is a win for climate and a win for Californians’ pocketbooks.

Finally, we need to start doing the groundwork today to develop a vast source of untapped clean energy that is waiting right off of the coast of California: offshore wind. Developing 10 gigawatts of clean offshore wind energy could save Californians $1 billion annually in resource cost savings and create more than 65,000 construction jobs. To get this cost-saving resource on the grid by the end of the decade, the work must begin now.

California can build an electricity grid that staves off the worst impacts of climate change and provides a resilient future with clean energy resources. We just need to move faster.