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In a bid to cut energy costs as well as greenhouse gases, Mountain View is partnering with a small band of South Bay cities to create a new clean-energy portfolio tailored for local residents.
On Thursday, Mountain View will host a community meeting to discuss plans for what is being called the Silicon Valley Community Choice Energy Partnership. While it’s not expected to be ready until late next year, the initiative would create a local Santa Clara County utility that would operate as an alternative to PG&E. Supporters say creating this alternative power company would give local ratepayers more leverage to demand clean-energy sources or lower prices.
There are plenty of unknowns with jump-starting a community-choice program, particularly where it would get its power. At the Thursday meeting, consultants studying this program will discuss a new technical study that maps out local power sources and anticipated market demand.
The event is scheduled for 6 p.m. Dec. 10 at the Mountain View City Hall Council Chambers, 500 Castro St. People interested in attending can register for the event at its webpage.
I’ll post some more geographically, politically and economically irrelevant information tomorrow. Thank you for reading.
I wouldn’t say it’s “unknown” where the Silicon Valley Community Choice Energy Partnership will get its electricity from. It will get it from new solar and wind projects that are selected primarily based on low cost. Initially, most of these projects will probably be in California but not in Santa Clara County. The governing board will make trade-offs on a variety of policy issues, but matching or beating PG&E’s prices will be critical to the program’s success.
Community Choice Energy has been working great in Marin for 5 years and in Sonoma for 2 years. It’s time that we had a choice in where our energy comes from. Cupertino voted unanimously last week to move forward. For more info check out http://www.Carbonfreemoutainview.Com
Mountain View needs to look at how Boulder, CO started a similar system when Xcel Energy ( which isn’t ) played the part of Perennial Gouger & Extortion on their town with promises after they tried the Smart ( actually dumb ) meter exchange.
That would probably get things started on creating your own utility, which is the process Boulder is doing now.
http://www.govexec.com/state-local/2014/07/boulder-colorado-xcel-energy-utility-municipalization/88612/