Milestones: Changing the conversation on clean energy

Over the years, Frontier Group research and reports have documented the clean energy revolution.

Roschetzky Photography via Shutterstock | Shutterstock.com

Why not a million solar roofs?

In the winter of 2000-2001, millions of California homes went dark. Enron and other energy firms exploited the state’s deregulated electricity market to create artificial shortages and jack up prices, resulting in rolling blackouts. The crisis cost the state $40 billion.

It also set the stage for a clean energy revolution.

State leaders proposed increased investment in new natural gas-fired power plants – but CALPIRG and Frontier Group staff had a different vision. Our researchers and policy analysts made the case that within a decade, California could generate large amounts of energy from wind, solar and other clean, renewable sources.

Frontier Group’s 2005 report, “Bringing Solar to Scale,” argued that by investing in rooftop solar energy, California could create the foundation of a self-sustaining solar market.

The Million Solar Roofs Initiative, championed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and supported by Environment California, embraced this idea. The initiative became law in 2006, setting a goal of installing 3 gigawatts (GW) of rooftop solar — enough to power 1 million homes — throughout the state within a decade.

Costs dropped, the market grew, and in 2011, Frontier Group’s Travis Madsen and Environment California Research & Policy Center’s Michelle Kinman and Bernadette Del Chiaro released “Building a Brighter Future,” which noted the state had reached a key milestone: more than 1,000 megawatts of rooftop solar installations.

The Million Solar Roofs Initiative succeeded: California achieved its 3 GW goal in 2015 and the goal of a million roofs with solar panels in 2019. It also helped lower the cost of solar energy. In Frontier Group’s 2015 report “California’s Solar Success Story,” we described how “by bringing about economies of scale in the solar energy industry, the Million Solar Roofs Initiative helped create a ‘virtuous cycle’ that will spur further innovation and growth in solar energy.”

Sandgar Photo & Video | Used by permission
Environment California’s Michelle Kinman releases the “Building a Brighter Future” report in November 2011.

A revolution in the making

In 2006, Frontier Group’s Madsen co-authored “Making Sense of the Coal Rush,” a report documenting the 150 new coal-fired power plants that had been proposed around the United States — plants that, if built, would have wrecked America’s chances of effective climate action.

Yet, if you squinted just a bit, even back then you could see the outlines of a clean energy revolution in the making.

In the years following the Million Solar Roofs Initiative, states across the country set increasingly ambitious renewable electricity standards — requiring utilities to obtain a rising share of the power they supply from clean sources.

In 2008, Frontier Group’s blueprint, “Renewing America,” published with Environment America Research & Policy Center, reviewed the nation’s renewable energy potential and its nascent progress and challenged the country to embrace a new level of clean energy ambition.

Then, our 2016 report, “We Have the Power,” (since updated) summarized the increasingly robust literature showing that a grid powered largely or entirely by renewable sources was feasible with currently existing technology — and at a cost that was within the realm of what society could afford.

Soon, advocates and policymakers across the country began to envision a future energy system without fossil fuels — and started working to make it a reality. By 2022, nine states had committed to getting 100% of their electricity from renewable sources by 2040.

Repowering our economy with renewable energy — and doing so in time to prevent the worst impacts of global warming — will still require hard work and raise its share of challenges. But the biggest debates today are not over whether it is theoretically possible to power the nation with clean energy, but rather how best that goal might be achieved. That, in and of itself, is progress.

Anna Azarov Photography | Used by permission
Frontier Group Director Susan Rakov speaks at a summit on renewable energy at UCLA in November 2019.

About this series: PIRG and The Public Interest Network have achieved much more than we can cover on this page. You can find more milestones of our work on research below. You can also explore an interactive timeline featuring more of our network’s research milestones.

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