Part 2. Decarbonize Electricity Starts in 2023
Livermore’s consequential 2022 Climate Action Plan (CAP) maps out planned actions to mitigate and adapt to its authors’ expectations of climate change. The city is not strictly acting on its own, but is essentially mandated to do so because of California legislation and executive orders. We are covering CAP’s effects on Livermore citizens and infrastructure in a series of short articles, with the first on the required electrification of buildings. This second article discusses the CAP’s plans to “decarbonize electricity.”
Decarbonizing electricity, defined as producing electricity with little or no carbon emissions, is one of the main technical goals of the green energy movement. They state that this may be done through the use of hydro, nuclear, solar, or wind energies. In 2019, the Aspen Institute’s Energy Roundtable believed that a combination of these energy sources could be used to ensure stable, seasonal power with no grid issues. We note that little discussion appears as to whether the life-cycle of materials used for these energies involves carbon emissions; that is, can mining, processing, and recycling be done without carbon fuels?
Twenty percent of Livermore’s greenhouse gas reductions are to be accomplished through decarbonizing electricity, primarily through enrolling Livermore residents, businesses, and public facilities by 2024 into East Bay Community Energy’s (EBCE) Renewable 100 Plan, and through some changes in materials for building construction practices. The Renewable 100 Plan’s electricity production claims to be entirely through solar and wind energies. The Livermore CAP authors appear to believe that energy storage via batteries can accommodate any grid issues from the seasonal nature of solar and wind energies. The changeover to EBCE’s Renewable 100 Plan will be done through the City Council’s actions, although it is unclear if individual citizens and businesses can opt out. Regardless, the Council’s plan is that less than 4% of the accounts will opt out.
They anticipate that there will be a ‘marginal’ increase in electricity costs, and offer plans to mitigate those costs for lower income households. From EBCE’s website, as of May 2023, the average monthly electricity cost for a household is $128.97/month for the Renewable 100 plan and $126.23/month for a PG&E plan.
Also included in the efforts to decarbonize electricity is proposed increased local generation and storage of electricity. This is not discussed in detail, but presumably includes increased use of residential solar panels and batteries. The CAP mentions exploring the use of hydrogen in generating electricity, but no specifics are given.
References
City of Livermore 2022 Climate Action Plan, adopted November 28, 2022, https:// livermoreclimateaction.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/2022-CAP-Final.pdf
Decarbonizing the Electricity Sector & Beyond: A Report from the 2019 Aspen Energy Roundtable, Co-authors , Roger Ballentine and Jim Connaughton, https:// www.aspeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/2019-Energy-REPORT.2.pdf, p.7
Residents Service Plans, East Bay Community Energy, https://ebce.org/service-plansresidential/, 2023, Accessed 25 May 2023.