Leading LA Mayoral Candidates Endorse Big, Bold Solar Goal

Media Contacts

Eric Garcetti and Wendy Greuel embrace goal supported by environmental groups and businesses, as well as thousands of voters for Los Angeles to generate 20% rooftop solar power by 2020

Environment California

Los Angeles – As anyone who has flown into LAX knows, Los Angeles has a lot of rooftop space. During the day, Southern California’s famous sunshine bathes those rooftops in virtually endless amounts of pollution-free energy. Given Los Angeles’s solar potential, environmental organizations, businesses and, now, two leading mayoral candidates are calling for Los Angeles to significantly ramp up its solar power commitment.

Environment California announced today that Los Angeles mayoral candidates Eric Garcetti and Wendy Greuel have officially endorsed the goal for Los Angeles to build 1,200 megawatts (MW) of rooftop solar by 2020, which would generate nearly 20 percent of the city’s peak summertime electricity needs. Such a goal would make Los Angeles a solar power leader unmatched anywhere in the country.

“It is high time Los Angeles live up to its full potential when it comes to solar power,” said Michelle Kinman, clean energy advocate with Environment California. “If we’re going to clean up our air and tackle global warming, it is critical that Los Angeles’s next mayor have the vision and courage to get behind this big, bold initiative to truly tap into the city’s most abundant natural resource.”

UCLA’s Luskin Center for Innovation finds the city has over 5,500 MW of rooftop solar potential. A fraction of that potential, 1,200 MW, is the load-proportionate share of Governor Brown’s goal of installing 12,000 MW of local clean power across the state by 2020. In comparison, there is approximately 60 MW of rooftop solar currently installed in Los Angeles, and the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power (LADWP) currently has a goal to install only 382 MW of new distributed generation by 2020. 

“We applaud Mr. Garcetti and Ms. Greuel’s endorsement of a big, bold vision for solar power in Los Angeles,” said Kinman. “Making Los Angeles a world-class solar city is a no-brainer solution that will bring cleaner air to the city, help stop global warming, and create local jobs that can’t be outsourced. We welcome the endorsement of this goal by all of the other mayoral candidates.”

An up-to-date list of individuals, businesses and organizations that have endorsed the 1,200 MW rooftop solar goal can be found on Environment California’s website.