Resilient Cities 11: Resilient Polices and Regulations: Getting Rules Right Title Slide

A map showing the biomass potential of the US by county. Note that San Diego's potential is high.

A map showing the already known geothermal locations in California.

A map showing that the geothermal potential for San Diego is relatively high.

A map showing the wind speeds all over America. Focusing on San Diego, it can be seen that for most of the county wind speeds are not very high.

A map showing the offshore wind potential for California. Note that San Diego's potential is not very high.

A map showing the solar potential for California. Note that San Diego's potential is high.

In 2007, geothermal energy in our state produced 13,000 gigawatt-hours of electricity. Combined with another 440 GWh of imported geothermal electricity, then geothermal energy produced 4.5 percent of the state's total system power. A total of 43 operating geothermal power plants with an installed capacity of nearly 1,800 megawatts are in California, about two-thirds of the total United States' geothermal generation.

The project will promote California clean energy consumption in renewable wind, solar and geothermal energy sources by 2012, during expected project completion. The renewable energy sources via Imperial Valley will be transported to electricity customers throughout San Diego, a plan that will reduce energy bills and provide hundreds of jobs in the community. The ‘superhighway’ is expected to carry at least 1000 megawatts of renewable energy in the 500-kilovolt grid, powering up to 650,000 homes.

Although the actual amount and pace of development of renewable energy resources will be determined by factors such as cost, incentives, regulatory policy, economics, and individual customer decisions, the message of this report is clear. Technical potential exists to serve a substantial amount of the Region’s capacity and energy needs with renewable power.