A bill that would clear the way for floating wind farms along the California coast is making a lot of progress in Sacramento. The bill has been overwhelmingly passed by the state Assembly and approved by a key Senate committee.
Malibu state Senator Henry Stern, who strongly backs the plan, said it is important to develop all possible clean energy sources to ensure California can keep people's lights on in the years ahead.
"We’re going to have to start to get creative about finding balance in our system," said Stern.
"I think this isn’t just about meeting clean energy and climate goals. I think it’s also about stabilizing and making the grid more resilient itself."
Assembly Bill 525 requires state regulators to develop a comprehensive plan by 2023 for clearing regulatory hurdles and calls for the building of necessary infrastructure to sustain an offshore wind-power industry along the coastline.
"As we think about how to address this climate crisis and put people back to work, there is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to do both just 20-30 miles off our coast," Assemblyman David Chiu, a Democrat from San Francisco, told Courthouse News.
"California has access to one of the world’s greatest untapped resources of renewable energy; offshore wind."
The region's recent heat waves have highlighted the importance of finding alternative forms of energy.
"This is imperative as somebody who has been living in 111-degree heat. We are afraid every moment that the grid is going to go," said state Senator Susan Talamantes-Eggman of Stockton.
"It is very frightening."
Pacific Gas and Electric temporarily shut off power for hundreds of thousands of Californians in the height of summer last year. Officials warn rolling blackouts may be in Californians’ future thanks to the wildfires and scorching heat waves putting stress on the state’s power grid.
Pacific Gas and Electric is joining the state government in trying to find new ways to buttress California's power grid. The nation’s largest utility built a stand-alone grid of solar panels, batteries and a backup generator in Briceburg that began operating in June.
Pacific Gas & Electric hopes these types of energy production sites will avert another deadly fire like the one that forced the company to file for bankruptcy in 2019.