Study Spotlight: California could save ratepayers billions of dollars each year over the next two decades. Read our report findings here.
Clean Power
An unprecedented expansion in solar, wind, batteries, clean firm options and accompanying grid infrastructure is central to California’s energy transition.
We develop policies to enable the delivery of these assets at high speed, low cost and gigawatt scale. Current areas of focus include transmission, offshore wind, long-duration storage and clean firm power.
Recent Analysis
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Barriers and opportunities to transmission in California
June 2024
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How clean firm power can enable California's climate goals
April 2024
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State officials reach landmark agreement on central procurement
September 2023
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California transmission permitting: Slowest in the West?
May 2023
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Study finds public financing could save ratepayers billions
April 2023
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Central procurement could be most consequential climate policy this decade
April 2023
Our take
California has established extremely ambitious clean energy targets, including to quadruple its current solar and wind capacity (including 20 GW of new floating offshore wind) as well as build 700 percent more battery storage annually compared to historic maximum rates.
There are multiple obstacles to deliver these targets. The most significant is a lack of transmission infrastructure. Clean energy developers will not execute investment decisions on new projects without sufficient confidence that they will be able to connect to the grid. Additionally, newer generation technologies including offshore wind, long-duration storage and clean firm power require targeted policy and investment support from state government to deliver at a meaningful scale in only two decades.
We are pursuing a suite of policies to overcome these obstacles. A primary focus is transmission, where we are developing alternative financing and deployment models (public-private partnerships) to increase the speed and lower the cost of new intrastate transmission. We are also evaluating the role and trade-offs of alternative clean firm power options for enabling grid resilience. Finally we are engaged in ongoing siting and permitting reform efforts, particularly related to offshore wind, in Sacramento.
For more information, contact Neil Matouka (neil@csgcalifornia.com) or Sam Uden (sam@csgcalifornia.com).
