Now that there is the threat that the PV2 solar project will be cut in half or canceled altogether, it’s a good time to review where San Benito County stands when it comes to the generation of renewable energy. In order to get the maximum economic benefit from renewable energy, you have to generate it.
Renewable energy projects benefit the county and residents from the taxes collected and jobs created by the commercial activity. Besides, having lots of resellers chasing scarce renewable energy is only going to increase the price to the consumer; we need over-capacity because much of this resource availability depends on both the time of day and weather; one predictable the other not.
In December, 2016, the California Energy Commission issued “Tracking Progress” providing its regular update of statewide progress toward renewable energy goals. This is an important document if you have any interest in renewable energy from generation to present and predicted costs; a copy of the report is available at the end of this column.
Overall, California is doing well, but as happens so often San Benito County is near the bottom of the list. The report lists all 1,203 renewable energy projects on-line as of Oct. 31, 2016. Three sparsely populated northern counties — Alpine, Del Norte and Modoc — had no renewable energy projects on-line. Of the remaining 55 counties, San Benito, with three projects totaling only 4 megawatts, was among the worst in the state. We tied with Santa Barbara and Sutter and exceeded only Marin and Napa which could generate 3 MW each. It’s obvious that both Marin and Napa are less in need of the economic benefits of renewable energy than we are.
Neither is San Benito County doing well regarding on-line and pending distributed generation systems of 20 MW or smaller, Including self-generation. SBC stood 52nd in identifiable distributed generation with 13 MW county-wide, exceeding only Mariposa, Trinity and Lassen counties; the 55-county average was 165 MW. The data showed zero pending systems in San Benito County, which probably indicates we are underreporting. If we are not measuring, we cannot measure progress, it’s a basic management tool.
With the large projects the total for the 55 counties was 21,300 MW on-line; an average of more than 387 MW of renewable energy generation per county. On a watt-per-capita basis, San Benito County ranked 43rd of 55 with 71. There were 22 counties in the hundreds and 17 counties in the thousands of watts-per-capita.
If you look to the future of renewable energy generation, it does not look good for San Benito County. Of the additional 212 statewide renewable projects that have received environmental permits, but were not yet operational as of October 2016, only one, PV2, was in San Benito County and it may be going away. For all the talk about renewable energy the county had only one iron in the fire and the fire appears to be going out.
You only get so many opportunities, can we afford to let so many good ones go by?
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