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Speaker 1: (00:00)
A proposal recently unanimously approved by the San Diego Board of Supervisors examines the feasibility of a number of alternative energy sources in San Diego County. The vote is part of the county’s regional decarbonization framework, which helps to ultimately eliminate carbon dioxide emissions and significantly reduce pollution. While officials have high hopes for the clean energy future in the area, much remains to be done before San Diego can break its dependence on fossil fuels. Join me with more than Rob Nicole Leschi and energy reporter for the San Diego Union Tribune. Rob, welcome back to the program.
Speaker 2: (00:38)
It’s always a pleasure to talk to you and Jane
Speaker 1: (00:40)
Can you tell us a little more about these different types of alternative energies that are being considered in this proposal?
Speaker 2: (00:47)
There are basically three that they look at. One of them is wave energy and that is something not many people are familiar with. Basically wave energy. If something is a process that scientists and technicians are trying to find ways to harness the power of the tides that you have in an ocean and use it as a source of energy problems with wave energy, that’s basically it is still very much in its infancy. And there was some difficulty getting that part. What the district is looking at besides solar and wind energy is also trying to develop some offshore wind projects. And that can mostly be seen on the east coast and in Europe the west coast has not really arrived yet. And third is geothermal geothermal energy, which makes up about 6% of California’s electricity, found mostly in Northern California, outside of about 60, 70 miles outside of San Francisco’s ethical geysers. So it didn’t really get out to Southern California, but those are some of the three things the district overseer looked at.
Speaker 1: (01:58)
And this proposal was accepted unanimously. Are we seeing a lot of bipartisan support for alternative energies?
Speaker 2: (02:04)
Only at the district level? Yes there are some, and Joel Anderson, a Republican, partnered with a nation and Fletcher, the county board chairman, to introduce this. I spoke to Supervisor Anderson about it. He said, and he stressed, that they don’t know for sure if geothermal wind from Southern California will be as profitable with wave power, but he says it is worth asking the questions and about each of them there are some feasibility questions about each these three sources,
Speaker 1: (02:37)
Supervisor Joel Anderson, as you just mentioned, advised that options beyond wind and sun, uh, should be explored. Are these other options being used successfully in other parts of the country?
Speaker 2: (02:51)
Offshore, wind, was, as I said, basically something that you saw in Europe, European countries could develop faster. There was a lot of onshore, uh, wind development in the United States. The problem with offshore wind specifically for California was that, and I’ve written in the past about the California military having real concerns and essentially blocking an entire section, all of southern California and part of central California, because of fear that if you put these really, really big wind turbines in place, military operations won’t be affected. Hence we use the most watched discussion about offshore wind. Offshore wind turbines have not yet been built in California, but most of the discussion has taken place in Northern California. But since I wrote this story last week, I’ve seen something that has had some discussion in Ventura County, which certainly belongs to Southern California, about something with one of the state waters of, um, off the coast of Ventura County set. So we’ll see what happens on the road, but for the most part it looks like it’s offshore, wind will mostly be something you would see in Northern California.
Speaker 1: (04:08)
And what are some of the biggest hurdles in San Diego’s transition to clean energy?
Speaker 2: (04:13)
The biggest hurdle is the fact that we have a lot of solar. We have a fair amount of wind in Southern California, so to speak, but the problem with the sun and wind is that they can’t be handled. And that means, uh, by energy standards, you can’t rely on them 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The problem with solar is that while it is very abundant during the daylight hours, once the sun goes down, if you get a lot of wind in parallel with it, when the wind is blowing and when you are not, you will not be able to create more solar problems , don’t think about one of the possible solutions that state and local governments have been considering, energy storage such as battery storage. Well, one of the problems with battery storage would be, and that’s something you can do at night when the grid is the busiest. But one of the problems with battery storage right now is that it’s hard to find something that can provide more than four hours of power. So we obviously have more than four hours of night time that we have to bridge. So these are some of the big hurdles renewable energies are currently facing
Speaker 1: (05:24)
One of the main obstacles to and completion of these projects is the community’s resistance to building them in the first place. How do residents see the prospects that these new sources of energy will be built in their backyard?
Speaker 2: (05:39)
That’s a good question because I think we stop people on the street, especially in California. When asked about clean energy, people almost unanimously say yes, we want more clean energy and fewer polluting sources. The big question is: what happens if the new renewable energy system proposed by the FFL is in your own garden? And there’s an example of that in, uh, the city of Macumba. Um, the county board of directors, uh, approves, uh, a project that would be a big solar project, uh, and also have a bit of battery storage right outside the door, literally right next to the Macumba city limits. And most of the local residents have strongly opposed it, and there is a lawsuit trying to prevent it from happening. Their argument: The facility would be so large that it would basically encompass the entire small town. It’s a combination. So we’ll see what happens in this lawsuit. But for now, this project has been approved and should be, uh, later at the end, either at the end of this year or at the beginning of the next, the groundbreaking ceremony
Speaker 1: (06:52)
Speaking to San Diego Union Tribune, Energy Reporter, Rob Nikolsky, Rob, thank you for
Speaker 2: (06:58)
Join us. It’s always a pleasure.
Speaker 3: (07:01)
[inaudible].
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