South Bay Clean Power

News

Marin Clean Energy Continues to Grow & Lower Rates 6 Years After Launch

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Showing impressive growth six years after it launched in 2010, Marin Clean Energy’s CCA today added added seven (7) more cities to its Community Choice Power program.  The cities of Lafayette, Walnut Creek, Napa, American Canyon, St. Helena, Calistoga and Yountville will now join the county of Marin and all 11 of Marin’s municipalities along with unincorporated Napa County, and the cities of Benicia, El Cerrito, San Pablo and Richmond — about 174,000 customers.

Combined, the seven municipalities approved by Marin Clean Energy’s board on Thursday have about 94,000 electricity accounts.

According to the Marin newspaper, the Marin Independent Journal,  Dawn Weisz, Marin Clean Energy’s executive officer, said the extra revenue generated by the addition of the seven new cities could result in an average 8 percent reduction in Marin Clean Energy’s rates.

“We did not anticipate the interest that we’ve seen from the neighboring communities that have now become members and are continuing to express interest in membership,” Weisz said. “It speaks to the interest the communities have in providing choice in their communities and also providing more access to cleaner energy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.”

We at South Bay Clean Power have watched as city after city, after witnessing the proof of concept and success of the Marin Clean Energy program, decide to join the Community Choice Power program.  We know that our own program will launch with a group of cities who will be know as our founding, starter cities – and then just like in Marin, other eligible cities will join them and our Clean Power program will grow and grow and grow.

San Francisco Mandates All New Buildings to Be Solar Powered – Why Don’t We?

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From NPR News:

San Francisco will soon begin requiring new buildings to have solar panels installed on the roof.

It’s the first major U.S. city to have such a requirement, according to Scott Weiner, the city supervisor who introduced the bill.

The ordinance, which was passed unanimously by the city’s Board of Supervisors, builds on an existing California law requiring new buildings to set aside 15 percent of the roof as “solar ready” — clear and unshaded. That law applies to residential and commercial buildings 10 stories or shorter.

Now, instead of just preparing the roof  for solar panels, such buildings would need to actually install some form of solar energy — either electricity-generating panels or solar heating units.

It’s a step toward San Francisco’s goal of meeting the city’s electrical demands with 100 percent renewable energy, Wiener notes in his statement.

The solar generating potential here is the South Bay of Los Angeles is much greater than in San Francisco and we hope our South Bay Clean Power cities will each consider a similar smart mandate.

LA County CCA Task Force Starts JPA Discussion

2016-06-16_22-11-58At our April 14 Los Angeles County Community Choice Aggregation Task Force Meeting in Palmdale today the County’s legal representative presented a proposed governance document for forming a Joint Powers Authority (JPA) to run the CCA that would serve the County’s unincorporated area.

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Click on document to enlarge

Forming a JPA is a crucial step in creating a CCA, and while we were glad to see the process started, we were disappointed in the governance structure proposed. Read More

Long Beach Sustainability Commission Looks at Community Choice Power

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We were very happy to be at Long Beach City Hall for the meeting of the Long Beach Sustainability Commission on March 24, along with LA County Energy Manager, Howard Choy, and our partners from IBEW 11/LA NECA/LMCC.

Tony Foster of Long Beach Oil and Gas did a great job presenting the basics of Community Choice Aggregation and outlining its growth and status in California. Afterwards he expressed his appreciation for our help in preparing for his presentation.

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We were especially grateful for Howard Choy’s remarks regarding South Bay Clean Power’s role in serving as the catalyst and promoters of the LA County CCA program.

Welcome to the Future: Community Choice Power could take 60% of California’s Investor Owned Utility Business

According to our friends at the Center for Climate Protection:

The combined population of areas with existing and about-to-launch programs, as well as large population areas considering Community Choice programs, is about 17.6 million. If all of these had operational Community Choice programs by 2020, and if we subtract out the approximately 25 percent of Californians already served by Municipal Utility Districts (therefore ineligible for Community Choice), then about 60 percent of eligible Californians would be able to select Community Choice. This transformation would happen ten years from the time Marin Clean Energy went live.

As you can see from this chart the Center for Climate Protection produced the Los Angeles County is the undisputed Big Dog of all programs on the list. And it is with no shortage of pride that we point out that without South Bay Clean Power acting as the driving force catalyst and bringing our vision for CCA to the LA County Board of Supervisors, specifically Supervisors Don Knabe and Shelia Kuehl, there would be no LA County program.  Read More