A poll of 1,000 registered voters in California, commissioned by the California Solar Energy Industries Association (CALSEIA) and Brightline Defense, found that 90% of them prefer solar power as a means to generate electricity. Almost 90% also indicated that rooftop solar power should be more encouraged.
“It makes no sense for California to build dirty power plants when we can generate our electricity directly from the sun. Californians want the state to do more to make solar accessible to more people, particularly with our communities most in need of clean renewable energy,” explained Eddie Ahn, executive director of Brightline Defense.
Some key findings of the poll were:
- Californians overwhelmingly (92%) believe consumers should have a choice to install rooftop solar panels, as opposed to relying solely on their utility company.
- 8 in 10 Californians disapprove of utility efforts to reduce compensation for surplus electricity generated by rooftop solar panels by more than 50%.
- Seventy-nine percent (79%) of Californians believe utilities should not be allowed to interfere with the transition to renewable energy just to save their own profits.
California is already the United States’ solar power leader with well over 10,000 MW of solar installations (an analysis of other states is here from Cleantechnica). Additionally, the cities of Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, and San Francisco are all national leaders in solar power. So, Californians clearly support solar power and seem to want more of it – perhaps much, much more.
The state’s renewables portfolio standard calls for a major surge in clean energy, “..[a]ll retail sellers of electricity shall serve 33 percent of their load with renewable energy by 2020.”
Of course, California is also home to cleantech companies like Sunrun, BrightSolar and Solar City. Some might not call Tesla Motors a cleantech company, because electric cars can be charged from sources that are non-renewable, but that will gradually change. Eventually, electric cars will be charged with electricity made from solar power — a few are already — but the majority are not.
Image Credit: urban, Wiki Commons
