The decommissioned San Onofre Nuclear Generation Station is not far from one of the largest geothermal energy resources in the world around the Salton Sea. |
On Tuesday, the California Public Utilities Commission issued a proposed decision (PDF) that would require Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric to each procure between 500 megawatts and 700 megawatts of new energy capacity by 2022 to make up for the generation lost with the 30-year-old nuclear plant’s closure last year.
Of that new capacity, at least 400 megawatts for SCE and at least 200 megawatts for SDG&E must come from “preferred resources.” Those are the energy efficiency, demand response, solar,wind, geothermal power and other renewable energy sources, and grid energy storage resources that must come before fossil-fuel-fired power -- namely, natural-gas-fired power plants -- under the state’s “loading order” regulations.