Powering California with 50% Renewable Energy by 2030: New Analysis Shows It Can Be Done (Union of Concerned Scientists)
Last week, a
new analysis - Investigating a Higher Renewables Portfolio Standard in California - was released that explored the technical, environmental, and economic implications of raising California’s Renewables Portfolio Standard (RPS) from 33 percent by 2020 to 50 percent by 2030. I’m excited to report that although the study illuminates the challenges of installing unprecedented amounts of renewables on the grid, it is technically possible. Moreover, California has tools in hand today to scale up renewables, and is developing programs and policies that will continue to lower the cost and technical challenges of doing so.
The study was led by a private consulting firm —
Energy and Environmental Economics, Inc. (E3) — and commissioned by the state’s five largest electric utilities. E3 modeled a 33 percent by 2030 RPS and compared those results to a 40 percent RPS and several 50 percent RPS cases that varied primarily by the amount and size of photovoltaic (PV) investments
and inclusion of other renewable energy technologies such as geothermal.
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