California is easily the top state in the country in developing its clean-energy industry, leading all other states in solar energy production, electric and plug-in hybrid vehicle sales and the number of clean-energy patents issued, according to the eighth annual California Green Innovation Index report released Wednesday by San Francisco-based think tank Next 10.
That wasn’t much of a surprise, though the state’s clear dominance was indeed striking.
But buried in the report was one head-turner of a fact — the real capital of green energy in the Golden State is the humble Inland Empire.
The Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario area is No. 1 in producing commercial and residential solar power, the clear leader out of 26 metropolitan areas across the state.
With 16,454 kilowatts of commercial and 137,683 kW of residential solar, the Inland Empire beats out its neighbors, the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim (14,642 kW commercial, 125,908 kW commercial) and San Diego-Carlsbad (15,169 kW commercial, 132,007 kW residential) metropolitan areas.
The green wave cresting from what traditionally has been considered a conservative sub-region of Democratic-dominated Southern California speaks volumes to energy experts, trend watchers and economists.
At this point, the region has more than double the amount of installed residential solar capacity as Silicon Valley, the home of big-name players like San Mateo-based Solar City. The San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward metropolitan area has just 64,747 kW of residential solar.
“This report reflects what we’ve longed struggled with, the gap between perception and reality,” said Evan Gillespie, director of the Sierra Club’s My Generation Campaign. “That solar has long had this image of being this fancy, expensive product and the reality is, it’s a tool for middle-class families to save money on their energy bills.”
The report’s co-authors cited the falling cost of solar panels, coupled with zero-down financing offered by companies such as Solar City, as reasons for the expansive growth in solar.
Others pointed to the combination of homeowner deals and commercial and industrial solar panels installed on a host of buildings — huge retailers like Wal-Mart and IKEA have affixed solar panels on top of their big-box stores and warehouses.
No matter how it happened, between 2009 and 2014 solar power generation in the state increased 1,378 percent.
“We often think a certain area is the green part of the state,” said Adam Fowler, research fellow with Beacon Economics in Los Angeles. “But the IE makes a lot of sense for installing solar, with as much sun in that area, it is easier to capture.”
Young families living in Riverside and San Bernardino counties, along with the eastern San Gabriel Valley, may also be more conscious about the effects of harmful air quality from carbon emissions. These areas have the worst ozone and particulate pollution out of other regions in the South Coast Air Basin.
So now it’s Millennials old enough to have families of their own who are dictating the direction of the energy system, moreso than their parents’ generation.
“There is a connection between folks seeing the air they and their kids are breathing and seeing themselves as helping to get cleaner air,” Gillespie explained.
Noel Perry, founder of Next 10, said the report shows that having a strong economy and cleaner air are not incompatible. From these trends, he sees a new model for future growth.
California, the sixth-largest economy in the world, saw its GDP per capita rise 27.5 percent from 1990 to 2014. At the same time, greenhouse gas emissions in the state fell 21.3 percent.
“California is a global leader when it comes to expanding its economy without increasing per capita emissions — this trend represents a shift from old growth models,” said Christopher Thornberg, founding partner of Beacon Economics, in a prepared statement.
More than 20 percent of the state’s total electricity comes from renewable sources, compared to the U.S. rate of 6.8 percent.
And sales of electric vehicles in the state continue to accelerate. Registrations for zero-emission vehicles increased 244 percent between 2012 and 2014. The number of zero-emission vehicles in the state doubled to 60,206 in 2013, and almost doubled again to 118,801 in 2014.
“Because California is the sixth-largest economy in world, we are a template that can easily be replicated,” Fowler said. “We are leading. We are going head first.”