Governor Newsom Updates the Roadmap to California’s Clean Energy Future

Mar 16, 2023

Published: May 25, 2023

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: Governor Newsom announced the "Building the Electricity Grid of the Future: California's Clean Energy Transition Plan" today, showing how California will reach our goal of 100% clean electricity by 2045, while keeping costs affordable and maximizing our energy supply through this transition.

RICHMOND – California has an ambitious clean energy agenda, and we’ve exceeded many of our targets years ahead of schedule. But to reach our ultimate climate goals, we need to build more clean energy faster.

Building on the investments and policy reform in last year's budget, and his announcement last week to fast-track permitting for clean energy projects, Governor Gavin Newsom today released an update on the state's clean energy progress and an implementation plan to reach our future targets.

Governor Newsom visits Moxion Power to announce the "Building the Electricity Grid of the Future: California's Clean Energy Transition Plan"

The roadmap, called "Building the Electricity Grid of the Future: California's Clean Energy Transition Plan," identifies the challenges ahead and how California will tackle them:

What Governor Newsom said: "California has shown we have a vision, and that vision is achievable. This update highlights how we have hit our early targets, some even ahead of schedule, but we are in a race against climate change. We must build more, faster, to ensure California has the clean, reliable and affordable electricity it needs to power our future."

In Richmond, Governor Newsom highlighted a vision that will include hundreds of new solar, wind, battery storage, and other clean energy projects. He also highlighted the role of technology in this modern electricity grid, allowing users to supply power to the grid they have stored in their zero emission car batteries and other appliances. This makes our grid more efficient, reliable and affordable.

Governor Newsom visits Moxion Power to announce the "Building the Electricity Grid of the Future: California's Clean Energy Transition Plan"

Climate change is adding to our urgency to act – hotter temperatures, more wildfires, and drought are all threatening our old power supply. The modern electricity grid must not only be clean, but be more able to endure demand amid hotter, drier weather.

HOW IT WORKS: California will have to build 148,000 MW of new clean power by 2045. We’ve already built out 35,000 megawatts (MW) of clean electricity capacity for the grid, the equivalent of 35 million homes’ average usage. The latest data from the California Energy Commission shows that in 2021, 59% of the state's energy came from renewable and zero-carbon resources. But to fully meet our goals, it will take investment from both the public and private sectors, and modernizing our rules to ensure we can build the clean energy projects we need to power our state.

The below graphic visualizes California's progress to date and ongoing strategy:

Last week, Governor Newsom announced a new executive order and legislative package to streamline permitting and other other regulations to ensure the state can build more clean energy projects faster – hundreds of solar, wind, and battery storage projects could benefit from this package.