California Utilities All But Confirmed To Miss 2010 RPS Target

It’s something clean tech observers and many in the utility industry have long expected, articulated in the form of a report from researchers at engineering and consulting company Black & Vetch: California utilities won’t be able to meet their 2010 renewable energy standard (RPS), which decrees that they must obtain 20 percent of their electricity from renewable energy sources like solar, wind or geothermal. The news comes from Earth2Tech, which reports that even if utilities have set the necessary projects in place, they won’t be online in time—not even by the end of 2010.

As those in the energy industries had long foreseen such a revelation, California’s utilities—from the big players, such as PG&E, SCE and SDG&E, to the municipal power companies—have also attempted to hedge against their potential failure to meet the RPS by overshooting the target. Fortunately for the state’s power companies, Governor Schwarzenegger recently quashed proposals to limit the amount of energy generated out-of-state that the utilities could count toward the RPS, a move that would certainly help them meet their 2020 RPS (33 percent clean energy) but which would also reduce the number of green jobs kept in California.

For now, the utilities’ best hope is to gun for the 2020 target, a task that won’t be easy, particularly if the RPS only includes clean energy produced in California. What’s in store for California residents and businesses over the next decade? Will utilities offer more incentives for consumers to build solar homes and businesses? Will more tax rebates for wind power emerge from the woodwork? But with moves such as California’s adoption of the country’s first statewide green building code on Tuesday, it’s evident that the Golden State is just getting started.