California Senate Bill SB 760, California Renewables Portfolio Standard Program, introduced by Senator Wright and coauthored by Assembly Member V. Manuel Pérez, would ask utilities to be more aware of the advantages of using geothermal energy as a dependable base-load renewable energy.
The relevant language is as follows:
This bill would additionally require that the process providing criteria for the rank ordering and selecting of least-cost and best-fit eligible renewable energy resources to comply with the program obligations include procurement of specific types of eligible renewable energy resources necessary to maintain the reliability of the electrical grid to meet electrical demand on a 24-hour basis, basis and consider the attributes of utilizing geothermal and other renewable energy resources, as specified.
Consideration of the attributes of utilizing geothermal and other renewable energy resources, including their system inertia, small footprint in terms of surface land requirements, habitat and other environmental impacts, their ability to provide local reliability and baseload generation.On August 30 the bill was given a third reading and then amended in the assembly on September 5.
