On March 4 we traveled to the heart of the Silicon Valley, San Jose, California, to participate in the sold out statewide symposium: Community Choice Aggregation gathering, “Creating the Clean Energy Economy: The Business of Local Energy”

The Symposium’s keynote speakers and panel discussions focused on Community Choice energy and how to optimize competition and choice for significant greenhouse gas reduction, energy resiliency, and local economic gain.
The event attracted a sold-out crowd of 350 people from all over California, including 48 speakers who discussed Community Choice from diverse perspectives and areas of expertise.

South Bay Clean Power Chair, Joe Galliani, spoke on the “Work in Process: Forming Community Choice Energy Agencies – Issues and Opportunities” panel which was moderated by Margaret Bruce, of Manzanita Consulting Associates. Also participating on that panel was Supervisor Dave Pine, San Mateo County; Melody Tovar, Regulatory Programs Division Manager at City of Sunnyvale; and San Francisco Public Utilities Commissioner, Barbara Hale,

The entire day’s program was expertly designed to inform attendees about the entire spectrum of Community Choice interests and expertise – those in the early investigative stages, elected officials in the process of setting up a program, and energy entrepreneurs developing technology to green the grid – to spark creative discussions and innovative solutions. It did exactly that for us!

Pictured above: Dawn Weisz (CEO Marin Clean Energy), Geof Syphers (CEO Sonoma Clean Power), Cathy DeFalco (Energy Manager, Lancaster Choice Energy), and Ann Hancock (Executive Director, Center for Climate Protection). It was our great pleasure to speak and interface with all of them.

Pictured to the right: South Bay Clean Power labor partner, Joe Sullivan, of IBEW 11/Los Angeles National Electrical Contractors Association/Labor Management Cooperative Committee with  Solar City Founder and CEO, Lyndon Rive at lunch.

We had an incredibly productive day with our colleagues and fellow CCA pioneers from throughout the state of California.  Everything we learned and heard led to us never feeling more positive or certain that South Bay Clean Power will be launching in 2017.

The time has never been better for Community Choice Power