California Renewable Portfolio Standard Progress

California has had a  Renewables Portfolio Standards Program since 2002 when the first goal was set requiring that renewables make up 20 percent of the state’s electricity mix by 2017.  This was accelerated in 2006 to 20 percent by 2010 with the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006.   In 2011 the RPS was increased to 33 percent by 2020, and with SB 350, passed in 2015, the RPS requirement increased to 50 percent by 2030. In 2018, SB 100 (de León, 2018) was signed into law, which again increases the RPS to 60% by 2030 and requires all the state’s electricity to come from carbon-free resources by 2045. 

California has already met the 2020 goal of 33 percent – thirty-four percent of 2018 retail electricity sales in California were served by renewable energy such as wind, solar, geothermal, biomass and small hydroelectric power.

The breakdown of that progress is discussed in California Renewable Portfolio Standard Annual Report for 2018. Large investor-owned utilities (IOUs) have already exceeded the 2020 goal with a forecast to reach 50% by 2020. However Small and Multi-Jurisdictional Utilities (SMJUs), Community Choice Aggregators (CCAs), and Electric Service Providers (ESPs) will need additional procurement to reach their 2020 goal.

For more detail, see California 2018 Total System Electric Generation.

Last update October 7, 2019