Students, advocates celebrate California’s clean energy growth

California is getting more of its energy from clean, renewable sources than ever before. The percentage of California’s electricity sales generated from renewable sources tripled in the last decade, rising from just 12% in 2013 to 36% in 2022.

Last Thursday, students, advocates and leaders from business and academia gathered at the University of California, Los Angeles to celebrate this statewide growth of clean energy technologies, as detailed in Environment California Research & Policy Center and Frontier Group’s Renewables on the Rise 2023 online dashboard. Watch the event recording here.

The dashboard tracks clean energy growth in California and across the country, letting users explore progress in six key clean energy technologies over the last decade and compare state-by-state progress. California leads the nation in solar power, battery storage, energy efficiency, electric vehicles and electric vehicle charging stations. Solar in California is nine times what it was a decade ago, and battery storage 789 times what it was a decade ago. Additionally, eight times as many electric vehicles were sold last year in California compared to a decade ago, and the state has 17 times more electric vehicle charging ports than it did a decade ago.

“California is truly setting the standard for renewable energy deployment and setting the pace in the race toward 100% clean and renewable energy,” said Steven King, clean energy advocate with Environment California Research & Policy Center.

Members of UCLA’s CALPIRG student chapter organized the event on the top level of UCLA’s Parking Structure 9, which boasts solar panels and several electric vehicle charging stations. This fall, the chapter’s priority is organizing support for the UC system to transition sector-wide to 100% clean energy, a significant step forward from its current commitment to power campuses with 100% clean purchased electricity by 2025.

“Young people are so excited for the future of climate action,” said Clara Castronovo, CALPIRG’s UCLA Chapter chair. “We’re proud of the progress that UCLA and the UC system have made in transitioning to renewable energy and are excited for our schools to continue to show the state that a 100% clean energy future is possible.”

Students were joined by UCLA’s chief sustainability officer, Nurit Katz, and the Los Angeles Business Council’s Vice President, Adam Lane, to highlight Los Angeles and UCLA’s contributions to California’s clean energy progress. The City of Los Angeles leads the nation in total installed solar capacity, which helped California achieve it’s #1 ranking in solar capacity.

With new state laws to help catch more of the sun’s energy along highways and more of the wind’s energy off of our coasts, California is well positioned to keep clean energy growing. New federal tax credits from the Inflation Reduction Act also promise to turbocharge clean energy and home efficiency upgrades across America. Let’s keep renewables rising in the Golden State and keep deploying technologies that help us reach 100% clean energy sooner.