From June 8 via June 9, 2023, U.S. Secretary of Power Jennifer M. Granholm visited California to focus on the Biden-Harris Administration’s dedication to increasing the nation’s clear vitality workforce and deploying each software to ship cleaner, cheaper vitality to American households — together with nuclear vitality, the nation’s largest present supply of carbon-free electrical energy.
Strengthening California’s Economic system
Power Jobs
In 2021, the biggest vitality employer sector in CA was vitality effectivity with 298,788 jobs. Photo voltaic was additionally a significant employer, with nearly 115,000 staff, which represented two thirds of the electrical energy era workforce.
In San Diego County, over 80% of the electrical energy era workforce was in wind, photo voltaic, and hydroelectric, nearly 30,000 staff have been employed in vitality effectivity. In Los Angeles County, there are over 12,000 photo voltaic and wind era staff, over 60% of the era workforce, and an extra 60,000 vitality effectivity staff.
The Inflation Discount Act will develop clear vitality workforce alternatives, bringing an estimated $21.2 billion of funding in large-scale clear energy era and storage to California between now and 2030.
Clear Power Funding
At present, California has over 28 GW of photo voltaic, wind, and storage capability, making it the second largest generator of renewable electrical energy within the nation. There may be nearly 14 GW of further deliberate clear vitality capability within the works in Southern California.
IRA tax credit that encourage funding in wind and photo voltaic will assist scale back vitality prices, as the prices of photo voltaic and wind energy are projected to drop by 24% and 35%, respectively, over the subsequent 30 years in southern California. Residential rooftop photo voltaic is projected to get 60% cheaper by 2050.
Because the begin of the Biden Administration, we’ve tracked greater than $100 billion in new battery provide chain investments, together with over $4 billion simply in Southern California.
In the identical interval, we’ve tracked greater than $5 billion in new photo voltaic manufacturing investments, together with an extra 2.2 GW per 12 months of photo voltaic modules in California.
Clear Transportation
California has over 40,000 various fueling stations already, which is highest of any state by an element of 4. The state may even obtain over $80 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Regulation to additional construct out its electrical automobile charging infrastructure.
California additionally has the best complete EV gross sales within the nation, with over 1.1 million EVs registered in CA in 2022. Drivers switching from a gasoline-powered sedan to an EV may save over $1200 per 12 months. For a lot of, the Inflation Discount Act is making it simpler and cheaper to buy an electrical automobile, with upfront reductions as much as $7,500 for brand spanking new EVs and as much as $4,000 for used EVs, serving to middle-class People skip the fuel pump and save on gas prices.
Investing In California’s Communities
Due to funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Regulation and the Inflation Discount Act, the U.S. Division of Power has made out there greater than $250 million since 2022 to California’s state and native governments to put money into vitality effectivity and grid resilience.
San Diego State College has been named an Industrial Evaluation Middle, receiving $1.4 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Regulation to assist small- and medium-sized producers save vitality, enhance productiveness, and scale back waste by offering no-cost technical assessments.
The College of California San Diego additionally obtained $11 million to enhance photo voltaic panel and battery recycling processes, and native firm Smartville obtained nearly $6 million to develop and reveal stationary vitality storage with used EV batteries.
Saving Californians Cash On House Power Payments
Due to the Inflation Discount Act, California will obtain over $582 million to implement a House Power Rebate program within the state. Low-income households in San Diego County may save a mean of 18% on their house vitality payments once they improve their home equipment and enhance vitality effectivity via this program.
Upgrading home equipment and enhancing house vitality effectivity may save a complete of over 14,000 GWh of vitality in California.
DOE’s Weatherization Help Program and State Power Program have invested greater than $57 million in California since 2015, resulting in over 2,000 jobs and over 6,300 properties with decreased vitality prices and improved well being and security.
Prioritizing California’s Underserved Communities
The Biden Administration has dedicated to advancing fairness for all communities, together with via the Justice40 Initiative, which goals to make sure Federal companies ship at the very least 40% of the general advantages of local weather, clear vitality, reasonably priced and sustainable housing, clear water, and different investments to deprived communities. DOE has greater than 140 applications coated by this initiative.
In Bakersfield, CA, communities are partnering with DOE via the Communities LEAP program to deal with vitality and financial improvement challenges by mitigating escalating vitality prices in susceptible elements of the county.
The Metropolis of San Diego partnered with DOE via the Photo voltaic Power Innovation Community to maximise the potential for photo voltaic vitality to extend the town’s resilience. These actions knowledgeable the event of a broader roadmap for clear vitality expertise deployment that supported the town’s targets.
For present DOE funding alternatives, go to: www.vitality.gov/infrastructure
Initially revealed on Power.gov
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