Is California's Green Dream Hot Air?

The state aims to rely on zero-carbon energy sources in two decades' time but has hurdles to overcome along the way

- by JAMES BICKERTON

CALIFORNIA AIMS TO OFFER 100 percent zero-carbon energy by 2045—which some might joke is also the date when the rooftop solar panel you ordered this year will get installed.

Red tape, high costs and an aging grid...will the challenges to the state's green dream render it a waking nightmare?

In September 2022, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed the Clean Energy, Jobs, and Affordability Act of that year into law, an ambitious program introduced to the state legislature requir-ing zero-carbon sources to provide 90 percent of the state's energy by 2035 and the 100 percent target in 2045.

Achieving these milestones requires a dramatic ramp-up of clean energy production, with natural gas still accounting for 39 percent of Californian in-state electricity gen-eration in 2023, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

That same year saw 54 percent of the state's energy production com-ing from renewable sources, with nuclear making up the rest.

California's performance in just over two years since its clean energy targets were signed into law has been mixed and raises questions about whether they could be missed. The state is unquestionably undergoing a green energy revolution, with the aim of solar and wind production turn-ing the Mojave Desert into the biggest renewable energy hub in the world.

In April, California achieved a sig-nificant milestone when renewable energy supplied 100 percent of its power for between 15 minutes and six hours over 30 out of the 38 pre-vious days, a first for the state. How-ever, California's desire to decarbonize its electricity grid has at times clashed with the state's notoriously stringent regulations, with a number of experts calling for red tape to be slashed in order to hit Governor Newsom's targets.

The state has also faced what Phil-lippe Phanivong, of the Energy and Resources Group at the University of California, Berkeley, told