Outgoing Mayor Gavin Newsom (D) launched an initiative that he says will result in 100 percent renewables to meet this city's power demand within a decade.
Newsom, who becomes lieutenant governor of California next month, announced the program during a speech commemorating the completion of the Sunset Reservoir Solar Project, which at 5 megawatts is the largest municipal solar facility in the state.
The project was completed last week and covers an area said to be the size of 12 football fields. The plant, owned and operated by Recurrent Energy, triples the amount of solar energy available to the city government here.
But Newsom is looking for much more. At the ceremony, he announced a $250,000 grant from the Sidney Frank Foundation that will assess how to meet the city's 950-megawatt peak power demand with nothing but renewables by 2020.
Officials admit the city has a long way to go to reach that target. In addition to the 5-MW solar project, the city can claim about 10 MW of distributed solar and 3.5 MW of biogas, leaving more than 900 MW subject to the generation portfolio of Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and the Hetch Hetchy Water and Power system, which supplies water and electricity to the city from the Hetch Hetchy reservoir in Yosemite National Park.
Because the Hetch Hetchy system powers the entirety of the city's municipal power needs, that means about a fifth of electricity demand here is already met with renewable, carbon-free energy -- assuming you consider large hydropower renewable.
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