South Bay Clean Power

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

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

Creating the Clean Energy Economy: The Business of Local Energy

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

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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! Read More

LA County CCA Task Force Meeting Features South Bay Clean Power

At the third Los Angeles County Community Choice Aggregation Task Force meeting held in the City of Monrovia on Wednesday, February 24, reports from the County’s CCA consultants were featured – as well as a report from Joe Galliani, Chair of South Bay Clean Power and SBCP’s economic and workforce development partner,  Los Angeles NECA Chapter Manager, Jim Willson.

Here’s what Howard Choy, General Manager, Los Angeles County Office of Sustainability, had to say in his introduction to the South Bay Clean Power presentation:

I want to add that we appreciate the work South Bay Clean Power is doing and what I would like to see is the cities, the COGs, organize themselves similarly to start generating interest and venues where we can then come and start providing more information about the County’s CCA efforts.

Here’s a video recording of the entire two hour County Task Force meeting including all presentations via the Go-to Meeting capture: