Peninsula Clean Energy has provided San Mateo County with clean and cheap energy since 2016, helping San Mateo County become more sustainable and get ahead of the plan for California to become 100% renewable by 2045.
With cold winter weather, the sun setting earlier, and holiday lights on their way, energy is essential in the coming months.
Peninsula Clean Energy proves that renewable energy can be an effective and sustainable method to provide energy to large communities. The company has made many meaningful contributions to San Mateo County over the past eight years.
“The climate crisis is all around us, and we need to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions as much as possible,” said Alhad Dighe, a sustainability specialist at the San Mateo County Sustainability Department.
Peninsula Clean Energy was formed because of these concerns in San Mateo County.
The company was originally founded in 2016 after a unanimous vote from all of the cities in San Mateo County.
“They wanted this service that they valued, those priorities that the residents had their concerns about,” said Lilly Meek, the community outreach specialist for Peninsula Clean Energy.
Since all this energy comes from clean sources, it helps not only the environment but also the health of citizens. San Mateo County has some of the cleanest air in the state.
According to the American Lung Association, San Mateo’s air is ranked highly, 12 out of the 58 other counties in California, having only one day where the air quality dropped to become unhealthy.
“The more we can transition our old gas appliances and gas cars into electric ones and use them at home, the better our air will be in the future,” Meek said.
The energy that Peninsula Clean Energy provides is actually cheaper than fossil fuels.
Fossil fuels are a limited resource, and they are being depleted. California also requires more infrastructure for clean energy to ensure they hit their goal of 100% renewable energy by 2045.
“Transiting from fossil fuels to clean energy now will ensure that we don’t have to worry about waiting until the last minute,” said Tara Krishnan, co-president of Carlmont Green Team.
The energy that Peninsula Clean Energy provides comes from a variety of renewable sources and is in collaboration with several different companies. These companies produce the energy, which is bought by Peninsula Clean Energy and transported to residents by PG&E.
They currently have 28 different contracts with various companies.
“The energy that we have, the energy that powers our homes, making sure that that’s coming from renewable energy sources is important,” Dighe said.
While energy comes from Peninsula Clean Energy and the organizations that they work with, PG&E still provides essential services to the community.
These include the transportation of energy and upkeep of the power lines. These services also account for about half of energy bills and are why residents’ bills still come from Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E) .
“The first priority is making sure that we have a clean future,” Meek said.
