Energy: Local Renewables

 
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Why is this a Climate Smart indicator?

  • San José Clean Energy is working towards delivering 100 percent carbon-neutral electricity to all customers by 2030. Local renewables, like rooftop solar panels, complement this goal and contribute to reducing our greenhouse gas emissions.   

  • One of our Bold Goals is to become the world’s first 1 gigawatt solar city by 2040.  

  • Renewable energy creates jobs.  

  • Local renewables like solar panels reduce electricity bills.  

  • Local renewables paired with battery storage systems increase our resilience by reducing the risk of widespread blackouts. 

What is the City doing to make progress on this indicator?

Completed

In Progress / Ongoing

  • Climate Smart Challenge and GoGreen Teams programs for San José residents, which encourage installing solar panels 

  • 37 municipal sites - including community centers, libraries, and fire stations – with solar panels on the roof, carport, or both.

Planned

  • Adoption of 2023 administrative update to building reach code will add new requirements for solar readiness for nonresidential buildings

Evaluating

  • Microgrids for green backup power at municipal sites 

  • Additional municipal solar installations 

About the data

Sources

California Distributed Generation Statistics (CDGS) - Interconnected Project Sites Dataset. The data were filtered to include only projects occurring in ZIP codes that lie entirely within San José’s city boundary. Each year’s total includes all projects that were approved by December 31st of that year. 

Limitations

Each item in the dataset is ZIP code-specific but not address specific or geocoded. Due to the complex nature of San José’s incorporated boundary and overlapping ZIP codes with other cities, it is not possible to precisely count installations in the City of San José using ZIP code data. In addition, some projects in the CDGS dataset lack location data, so some renewable energy installations in San José may not be included in this count. These limitations together likely lead to a slight undercount. 

Last updated

August 2023