Energy Briefs: Renewables milestone in California
Editor’s Note Energy Briefs is a weekly recollection of local, regional and national news regarding some of the most intriguing updates regarding energy, water, and the environment.
Earlier this month the state of California reached an important milestone by producing approximately two-thirds of its power from renewable sources of energy.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported that on May 13 renewable energy sources produced a record 67.2 percent of the electricity for the state’s biggest power grid controller, the California Independent System Operator.
Furthermore, that percentage does not take into account energy generated by large hydropower plants nor rooftop solar which would increase the percentage to about 80 percent, meaning there’s 20 percent of the electricity demand not accounted for here.
The total amount of renewable power generated at the state level is a bit difficult to produce since not all renewables were accounted for by the CAISO which only takes into account the eligible renewable sources listed on Senate Bill 350. Also, the CAISO grid makes up 80 percent of the California electricity grid which can result in the total amount of clean power produced is larger than reported.
All of the clean energy sources accounted for within the CAISO’s grid make up about 64 percent of the entire power demand of the state without taking into account the renewables produced outside CAISO’s grid which could take that number as high as 70 or 75 percent.
Zero net energy homes
At the end of last week, the U.S. Department of Energy has approved $2 million in funding for the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) which has launched two projects to help the state meet its ZNE building goals.
California has established ambitious goals to reduce energy consumption in buildings, including a policy goal for all new residential buildings to be zero net energy by 2020. That will involve constructing highly-efficient homes with some kind of on-site generation or access to community green options.
One of the projects will provide detailed cost and performance modeling of ZNE homes and identify barriers while the other seeks to ensure acceptable indoor air quality in ZNE homes that use natural gas.
Also, the California Energy Commission (CEC) is providing $2 million in funding for the two projects according to a news release from the Berkeley Lab. The DOE’s Building America program is also supporting the air quality project, the results of which will inform DOE’s Zero Energy Ready Home program.
ZNE buildings essentially generate as much as they consume on an annualized basis, and California has led the way in the United States in laying the path towards ultra-low energy buildings. Carbon dioxide emissions from residential and commercial buildings make up about 23 percent of the state’s overall greenhouse gas emissions, of which about 14 percent are from electricity generation sources and 9 percent from building heating fuels.
Paris agreement
During the weekend President Donald Trump announced via social media that he was going to announce what action to take regarding the Paris Climate Deal signed in December 2015.
But according to Axios, the president has already made up his mind. According to the news outlet, Trump has told multiple advisors such as EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt that he intends to pull the U.S. out of the Paris agreement on climate change.