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Alternative Energy Resources in California

Below is a short summary of alternative energy resources for California. For more information on each technology, visit the State Energy Alternatives Technology Options page.

For more information, including links to resource maps, energy statistics, and contacts for California, visit EERE's State Activities and Partnerships Web site's California page.

Biomass

Studies indicate that California has excellent biomass resource potential. For more state-specific resource information, see Biomass Feedstock Availability in the United States: 1999 State Level Analysis.

Geothermal

California has high-temperature resources that are suitable for electricity generation as well as direct use and heat pumps. For more information on geothermal resources, including resource maps, visit GeoPowering the West.

Hydropower

California has a good hydropower resource as a percentage of the state's electricity generation. For additional resource information, check out the Idaho National Laboratory's Virtual Hydropower Prospector (VHP). VHP is a convenient geographic information system (GIS) tool designed to assist you in locating and assessing natural stream water energy resources in the United States.

Solar

To accurately portray your state's solar resource, we need two maps. That is because different collector types use the sun in different ways. Collectors that focus the sun (like a magnifying glass) can reach high temperatures and efficiencies. These are called concentrating collectors. Typically, these collectors are on a tracker, so they always face the sun directly. Because these collectors focus the sun's rays, they only use the direct rays coming straight from the sun.

Other solar collectors are simply flat panels that can be mounted on a roof or on the ground. Called flat-plate collectors, these are typically fixed in a tilted position correlated to the latitude of the location. This allows the collector to best capture the sun. These collectors can use both the direct rays from the sun and reflected light that comes through a cloud or off the ground. Because they use all available sunlight, flat-plate collectors are the best choice for many northern states. Therefore, this site gives you two maps: one is the resource for a concentrating collector and one is the resource for a flat-plate collector.

What do the maps mean? For flat-plate collectors, California has very good solar resources, and the entire state can effectively use these technologies. The southern region of the state has particularly good resources. For concentrating collectors, California has a widely varying resource. The southern region of the state has some of the nation's best resources, but the far northwest would not be able to use many of these technologies.

Detailed Concentrating Solar Power Resource Maps for the southwestern United States are available from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

The draft report California Solar Resources: In Support of the 2006 Integrated Energy Policy (PDF 965 KB) (Download Adobe Reader) defines technical potential as resources that have no economic or environmental restrictions. The report shows, by county, the technical potential for photovoltaics (PV) and concentrating solar power (CSP) in California. The report excludes the following areas:

• Large bodies of water.
• Densely forested areas.
• Agricultural lands.
• Reserves, parks, and other areas with sensitive habitats.
• Regions with north slopes greater than 5%.

In addition, the technical potential includes a restriction of area based on the performance factor characteristics of the systems:

• CSP: A packing factor of two and a system efficiency of 15%
• PV: A system efficiency of 10%

The results show that the technical potential of installed PV capacity is 17 billion kW and the potential for CSP to be just over 1 billion kW, with the geographic distribution shown in Figures 1 and 2.

Another study of the potential for solar electricity generation in California, the Energy Atlas of the West, found the annual solar electricity generation potential to be 128 billion kWh and the annual technical potential for solar energy generation in California to be 128 billion kWh. This estimate uses state-level tabular data produced by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in 1991 and 1992 and excludes the following areas:

• Federally classified sensitive land – 100% excluded.
• Forest – 50% excluded.
• Agriculture – 30% excluded.
• Range – 10% excluded.
• Mixed agriculture and range – 20% excluded.
• Barren – 10% excluded.
• Wetland – 100% excluded.
• Urban – 100% excluded.
• Water – 100% excluded.

Discrepancies between the two studies are caused by methodological differences. Refer to the specific documents for detailed information.

Wind

Wind Powering America indicates that California has wind resources consistent with utility-scale production. The areas of good to excellent resource are concentrated in southeastern California. Notable good to excellent resource regions include the mountains east of San Diego, San Gorgonio Pass near Palm Springs, the Tehachapi Mountains southeast of Bakersfield, and areas in the Mojave Desert. In northern California, the areas of Altamont and Solano near San Francisco have good to excellent resource. Ridge crest locations throughout the state may also have good wind resource. In addition, small wind turbines may have applications in some areas. For more information on wind resources in California, visit Wind Powering America's U.S. Wind Resource Map.

The Renewable Energy Atlas of the West estimated the annual wind electricity generation potential in California to be 45 billion kWh. The estimate excludes the following areas, which are assumed to be infeasible for wind development:

• Federally classified sensitive land – 100% excluded.
• Forest – 50% excluded.
• Agriculture – 30% excluded.
• Range – 10% excluded.
• Mixed agriculture and range – 20% excluded.
• Barren – 10% excluded.
• Wetland – 100% excluded.
• Urban – 100% excluded.
• Water – 100% excluded.

Energy Efficiency

Energy efficiency means doing the same work, or more, and enjoying the same comfort level with less energy. Consequently, energy efficiency can be considered part of your state's energy resource base — a demand side resource. Unlike energy conservation, which is rooted in behavior, energy efficiency is technology-based. This means the savings may be predicted by engineering calculations, and they are sustained over time. Examples of energy efficiency measures and equipment include compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs), and high efficiency air conditioners, refrigerators, boilers, and chillers.

Saving energy through efficiency is less expensive than building new power plants. Utilities can plan for, invest in, and add up technology-based energy efficiency measures and, as a consequence, defer or avoid the need to build a new power plant. In this way, Austin, Texas, aggregated enough energy savings to offset the need for a planned 450-megawatt coal-fired power plant. Austin achieved these savings during a decade when the local economy grew by 46% and the population doubled. In addition, the savings from energy efficiency are significantly greater than one might expect, because no energy is needed to generate, transmit, distribute, and store energy before it reaches the end user.

Reduced fuel use, and the resulting decreased pollution, provide short- and long-term economic and health benefits.

For more information on current state policies related to energy efficiency, visit the Alliance to Save Energy's State Energy Efficiency Policies page.