Sonoma Clean Power

Lake County governments opt to delay Sonoma Clean Power expansion

Jeff Quackenbush, NORTH BAY BUSINESS JOURNAL

Lake County’s decade-long consideration of an alternative to Pacific Gas & Electric as the supplier of power to residents and business has been pushed back again.

Both the Board of Supervisors and Lakeport City Council on Tuesday declined to move forward with joining Sonoma Clean Power.

The supervisors failed to secure support to vote on approving the partnership during their morning meeting. And Lakeport’s council members, looking to the county’s move, also opted for more study. That followed the Clearlake City Council’s divided vote Oct. 2 against joining.

The offer required all three to join together. Because of the lead time required by the California Public Utilities Commission for implementing a community choice aggregation power provider in an area, Sonoma Clean Power had been hoping to review Lake County decisions at its November board meeting, allowing service to start in May 2027.

Read more at https://www.pressdemocrat.com/2025/10/22/lake-county-governments-opt-to-delay-sonoma-clean-power-expansion/

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Sonoma Clean Power to make pitch for Lake County to join

Jeff Quackenbush, NORTH BAY BUSINESS JOURNAL

Sonoma Clean Power is set to make its case Tuesday evening for Lake County to join the energy agency currently serving Sonoma and Mendocino counties. It’s a conversation a decade in the making.

The offer comes with clear conditions from the public electricity supplier. Sonoma Clean Power’s board has made Lake County’s membership contingent not only on approval from the county, Lakeport, and Clearlake but also on the county’s participation in the agency’s geothermal energy initiative.

That initiative, known as the geothermal opportunity zone (GeoZone), is a partnership among Sonoma and Mendocino counties and three energy companies. Its goal is to tap The Geysers geothermal field, which spans all three counties, to generate an additional 600 megawatts of renewable power for the North Bay. CEO Geof Syphers said joining the GeoZone is central to the offer: without consensus on new geothermal development, he cautioned, conflicts would likely emerge down the line.

Read more at https://www.pressdemocrat.com/2025/09/29/sonoma-clean-power-to-make-pitch-for-lake-county-to-join/

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New bill critical to unlocking advancement toward increased geothermal power generation

Mary Callahan, PRESS DEMOCRAT

The much-anticipated statute is the key to unlocking expanded development of clean, renewable geothermal energy in and around The Geysers, officials say.

An obscure state bill signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom last week could not seem less important. Or interesting.

Let’s be honest.

It describes how counties can now serve as lead agencies for environmental review of geothermal exploratory projects in California. Yawn.

But local officials say the much-anticipated statute is the key to unlocking expanded development of clean, renewable geothermal energy in and around The Geysers, advancing green energy goals here and across the West through more efficient and sustainable next-gen technologies that could be incubated here.

At stake is the chance for Sonoma Clean Power, the majority electrical supplier in Sonoma and Mendocino counties, to phase out remaining dependence on aged, highly polluting natural gas power plants that plug the supply gap when nightfall and unsuitable weather reduce availability of solar and wind power.

New geothermal energy approaches proposed for use in the Sonoma, Lake and Mendocino region could ensure a round-the-clock supply of renewable, 100% emission-free power for local consumers and for folks outside the area in the future, as well.

Read more at https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/geysers-geothermal-newsom-sonoma-clean-power/

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Sonoma Clean Power executes power purchase agreement with Luminia for 11.6 MW solar plus 8 MW energy storage project

BUSINESS WIRE

Project to reliably alleviate grid constraints and deliver clean, renewable energy to residents

SAN DIEGO & SANTA ROSA: Luminia and Sonoma Clean Power (SCP) announced today the signing of a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) for the development of an 11.6 MW AC solar plus 32 MWh battery storage project in Sonoma, California. Construction of the 75-acre project is expected in the second half of 2023 in southern Sonoma County, tying into a nearby electrical substation.

“Deploying reliable solar and storage projects with community choice aggregators like Sonoma Clean Power reinforces renewable energy as the new standard in our daily energy lives,” said Dale A. Vander Woude, chief investment officer of Luminia. “We formed an excellent team with Kenwood Investments to provide Sonoma Clean Power with a solution for its resource adequacy demand, which is what brought this important project to fruition in Sonoma County.”

In addition to the PPA, Luminia and Kenwood Investments, LLC, are managing the late-stage development of the project. Once completed, SCP will dispatch the 100 percent renewable, locally generated electricity to its EverGreen premium service customers throughout Sonoma and Mendocino counties. The 11.6 MW AC solar PV system also includes 32 MWh of lithium-ion battery storage that can distribute stored solar power across the grid during peak evening hours.

Read more at https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220606005234/en/

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In this Nov. 12, 2020, file photo, traffic moves on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File) Golden Gate Bridge tolls are going up in July. Here’s how much Lake, Mendocino, Sonoma counties considering big geothermal power expansion

Jeff Quackenbush, NORTH BAY BUSINESS JOURNAL

A plan to significantly expand geothermal electricity production in the North Bay — in a bid to create more 24/7 renewable production to ease California’s move into a zero-emissions energy over the next 24 years — is getting more buy-in from local officials.

The area already is home to the world’s largest geothermal power station, The Geysers, which produces almost half of California’s electricity production from that energy source, according to Calpine Corp., which runs most of the plants there. Now, Sonoma Clean Power, a community choice aggregation utility that serves upwards of 230,000 customers in Sonoma and Mendocino counties, wants to nearly double that output.

It hopes to spur more investment in smaller-sized, low-water-usage plants, scattering them across much of Lake County and parts of Mendocino and Sonoma counties to bring power production closer to residential and business customers.

To accomplish the plan, Sonoma Clean Power is proposing a geothermal opportunity zone, or GeoZone. On Dec. 7, the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to join the zone.

Read more at https://www.northbaybusinessjournal.com/article/article/north-bay-counties-consider-big-geothermal-power-expansion/

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As home pot growers left the region last year, Sonoma Clean Power lost $10 million in revenue

Julie Johnson, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

They’re called “superusers” within the power industry, those electricity customers using as much as 200 times the amount of energy in a month than a typical household.

Some of them have big estates, horse stables or electric cars. A small number are older mobile home parks operating on one utility meter. Most are likely growing marijuana indoors, local power agency officials said.

Last year, these “superuser” customers in Sonoma and Mendocino counties with monthly electric bills as high as $20,000 started to disappear.

About 300 homes using the most power in the region closed their accounts or dramatically decreased energy consumption in May and June of 2018, according to Sonoma Clean Power, the area’s green power agency. Although small in number, the loss of these major customers contributed to an unexpected $10 million drop in revenue and expenses last year, agency CEO Geof Syphers said.

After scrambling to figure out why these customers were disappearing, power agency officials determined they corresponded with a marked shift in where marijuana is and isn’t being grown in the region and state, he said.

Read more at https://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/9453610-181/as-home-pot-growers-left

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Sonoma Clean Power partners with Stem to provide smart batteries for large businesses

Hannah Beausang, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Sonoma Clean Power is partnering with a provider of smart batteries to offer large commercial and industrial businesses the chance to save as much as 50 percent on their monthly energy bills.

The partnership with Millbrae-based Stem, announced Tuesday, will allow as many as 150 large business in Sonoma and Mendocino counties to install software-controlled batteries that provide power during peak demand times when electricity is most costly, account executive Nate Kinsey said.

Sonoma Clean Power, a public electricity provider serving about 220,000 customers in Sonoma and Mendocino counties, hopes at least 60 of those large companies will use the battery packs, which recharge at low-demand energy times.

The power company will conduct outreach to these businesses — considered “super users” of energy — to help them understand the potential savings. The process could take up to 13 months from initial contact to installation, Kinsey said.

Businesses pay a monthly service fee for the batteries, which are installed and owned by Stem and connected to the PG&E grid, said Sonoma Clean Power Program Manager Nelson Lomeli. Each customer can expect annual savings between $20,000 and $70,000, he said.

Read more at https://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/8657113-181/sonoma-clean-energy-partners-with

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