Two years ago, Sonoma Clean Power, a Community Choice Aggregator, launched as a public startup in a business dominated locally by Pacific Gas and Electric Co., a private-sector energy giant that has served households and businesses in Sonoma County for more than a century. The new venture's supporters promised consumers a greener brand of electricity built upon greater use of renewable power, from solar, wind and other non-fossil-fuel burning sources such as geothermal.
The agency's basic service has an energy supply that is 36 percent renewable, from geothermal and wind sources. Currently, 12 percent of the supply for the basic service comes from geothermal contracts with Calpine, which employs about 200 workers in its operations at The Geysers field on the Sonoma-Lake county border.
By 2018, solar and more geothermal sources will be added to the mix, said Geof Syphers, the agency's chief executive officer.
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