(Editor's note: The "Business of Clean Energy Symposium" organized by the Sonoma County Climate Protection Campaign will be held Oct. 23 in Petaluma. The authors of this article, Jeff Byron and Jigar Shah, will both be presenting at the conference. For more information, go to localenergybiz.com.)
“No money down” financing has made installing solar much easier for many property owners. But for every customer with a good credit score and south facing roof, there are many others without such advantages. Enter Community Choice Energy. It promises to overcome barriers to renewable energy development while modernizing and decentralizing the electricity system.
California’s first and second Community Choice programs, Marin Clean Energy and Sonoma Clean Power, offer cleaner power and lower rates. Sonoma Clean Power estimates that in 2014 alone more than $6 million will stay in the local economy because of their favorable power procurement.
The success of these two Community Choice programs has inspired communities up and down the state. Currently San Diego, Sunnyvale, Mountain View, Alameda, Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Lancaster, among others, are seriously exploring starting Community Choice programs because it is the most cost-effective, powerful tool under local control to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Community Choice is a local program that buys and generates electricity for businesses and residents. The investor-owned utility like PG&E continues to provide customer service, maintain power lines, transmit power, and handle the billing. It is an agile public-private partnership.
Investing in local clean energy will make the energy system more resilient over time and will keep costs stable by reducing dependence on the volatile market for fossil fuels. Locally produced energy also reduces the considerable expense of adding new transmission lines by producing more power closer to where it is consumed.
With Community Choice Energy, some communities could jump to micro grids where electricity is both consumed and produced on the premises. Community Choice is really best positioned to accelerate the deployment of proven technologies that are underutilized like the intelligent grid in California. To do so they will need political savvy and private partners with expertise, technologies, and financing to help them interface with large private utilities to integrate renewable energy into the system.
The Climate Protection Campaign, a proponent of Community Choice since 2005, is hosting The Business of Local Energy symposium. Leading experts will describe innovative programs available now as well as programs planned for the near future. They will explore how to optimize Community Choice as a game-changing innovation platform for developing local energy, stimulating local economic development, and increasing the resiliency of the grid.
Cisco, Enphase Energy, Siemens, ChargePoint, Tesla, and Green Charge Network will participate in the discussion with the operators of Sonoma Clean Power and MCE Clean Energy, researchers, regulators and policymakers focused on how to increase local renewable power generation while keeping rates competitive.
Cleantech companies have the human and capital resources, and experience in bringing start up ventures to scale necessary to unleash the potential of Community Choice. It can help revolutionize the way we produce, deliver, and consume energy for the benefit of customers, the economy, and the environment.
The Business of Local Energy symposium will be held Oct. 23 in Petaluma. Learn more at www.localenergybiz.com. ...
Jeff Byron is co-chair, Cleantech Open National Board, a former California Energy Commissioner and former Energy Director at Oracle. Jigar Shah is a clean energy entrepreneur, Carbon War Room's first CEO, founder of Sun Edison and author of Creating Climate Wealth: Unlocking the Impact Economy.
