San Francisco

In 2001 the Sierra Club, Greenpeace and others campaigned to get San Francisco voters to overwhelmingly approve a municipal bond measure giving the city a large source of capital for renewable energy projects. Working with energy experts, the city has at last put together a detailed plan for a ground-breaking Community Choice Energy (Community Choice Energy) program that will create 360 megawatts of local clean energy and conservation, including the world’s largest urban distributed solar network and 150 megawatts of new wind energy. The city will gain 100 new wind turbines and 15,500 new solar rooftops. Under the Community Choice Energy, 51% of San Francisco’s electricity will come from clean, renewable sources by 2017.

With San Francisco’s Community Choice plan PG&E will continue to handle billing, metering, and transmission (for a nominal fee), while the new Electric Service Provider will handle procurement on behalf of the City. In addition, the City will issue approximately $600 million in revenue bonds (“H Bonds”) to the Electric Service Provider to finance local clean energy generation capacity – initially 72 Megawatts of renewable distributed generation and at least 31 MW of solar photovoltaic, 107 MW of demand response, efficiency and conservation technologies, and a 150 MW wind farm. At the end of the contract with the Electric Service Provider – upon the repayment of the bonds – the city will own the new generation capacity, and may transfer ownership to residents and businesses that choose to purchase and own systems based on a monthly charge.

If all goes well, San Francisco will make history in the fall of 2008, installing the first solar panels in what will be the largest urban solar network in the world.

Marin County

Marin County is moving ahead with Community Choice Energy plans, with 74% of Marin residents supporting the county becoming a provider of green energy in a recent poll. The County recently collaborated with Navigant Consulting to create a detailed Community Choice Energy plan, which was released to the public on March 6, 2008. In October 2007, representatives of renewable-energy industries and financiers met and determined that Community Choice Energy in Marin and elsewhere will be able to purchase sufficient renewable energy to meet their customers’ demands. Marin has adopted a “meet or beat” PG&E rate structure, but will also provide customers with the option of adding $5/month to their bill for 100% renewable energy (“light green” and “dark green” options).

According to Marin County officials, recent quotes from power suppliers indicate that a Marin Community Choice Energy program could procure at least 20% of its power from renewable sources from start-up in 2009 and achieve 51% renewable energy supply in about five years while remaining competitive with PG&E rates (see the Appendix for more information on Marin’s plans).