Improving reliability and environmental justice en route to 85 percent clean electricity in California by 2030

A technical analysis indicates California can reach 85 percent carbon-free electricity by 2030 even under extreme stressors, such as the August 2020 heat waves and the retirement of one-third of natural gas capacity. To support this, the brief recommends diversifying clean energy resources (including offshore wind and geothermal), phasing out natural gas plants—particularly in disadvantaged communities—and leveraging demand-side resources like energy efficiency and demand response. It also suggests improving regional coordination across Western states and refining reliability evaluation tools used by the CPUC, CEC, and CAISO.

• Technical analysis by Telos Energy and GridLab demonstrates that California can reliably reach 85 percent carbon-free electricity by 2030, even when facing stressors such as the retirement of at least one-third of remaining natural gas-fired capacity, limited hydropower, constrained imports, and weather conditions similar to the August 2020 heat waves.
• To protect disadvantaged communities (DACs) from local air pollution caused by natural gas plants cycling on and off more frequently in a high-renewables grid, the CPUC, CAISO, and CEC should plan a phase-out of all natural gas plants, aiming to retire all plants in DACs by 2030 if feasible.
• The brief recommends accelerating clean energy deployment by diversifying supply-side resources, specifically mentioning offshore wind and geothermal, and improving reliability evaluation tools through stress testing and the use of simpler models across multiple weather years.
• Demand-side resources, including energy efficiency, rooftop solar, and demand response, are identified as tools to hedge against slow deployment of supply-side resources and provide reliability and public safety benefits.
• Enhanced coordination among Western states is proposed to reduce costs and increase reliability by diversifying resources and loads, though any expansion of CAISO across the West should include protections for governance, environmental justice, resource shuffling, and emissions leakage.

APA

Energy Innovation (n.d.). Improving reliability and environmental justice en route to 85 percent clean electricity in California by 2030. https://energyinnovation.org/wp-content/uploads/85-Percent-by-2030-for-California-Policy-One-Pager.pdf

Chicago

Energy Innovation. Improving reliability and environmental justice en route to 85 percent clean electricity in California by 2030. n.d. https://energyinnovation.org/wp-content/uploads/85-Percent-by-2030-for-California-Policy-One-Pager.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Energy Innovation |title=Improving reliability and environmental justice en route to 85 percent clean electricity in California by 2030 |url=https://energyinnovation.org/wp-content/uploads/85-Percent-by-2030-for-California-Policy-One-Pager.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{energyinnovationndimproving, author = {{Energy Innovation}}, title = {{Improving reliability and environmental justice en route to 85 percent clean electricity in California by 2030}}, institution = {Energy Innovation}, url = {https://energyinnovation.org/wp-content/uploads/85-Percent-by-2030-for-California-Policy-One-Pager.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }