A study released Wednesday found that Los Angeles can be powered entirely with renewable energy in the next 25 years without any significant disruption to people’s lifestyles or the economy.
The LA100 Study was conducted by the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory in partnership with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and USC. It is one of the largest studies of its kind conducted by the federal government.
According to the study, the LADWP can reach the city’s goal of being entirely run by renewable energy by 2045 or sooner if it rapidly deploys wind and solar power, electrical storage and other technologies.
The study also found that the city can dramatically reduce its greenhouse gases, from 76% to 99% less than 2020 levels, by 2030, if the city begins to work toward these goals now.
“This study makes it clear that it’s possible to achieve our goal while remaining true to the core principles of reliability, environmental stewardship, environmental justice, resiliency and affordability,” LADWP Commissioner Cynthia McClain Hill said. “That’s critical, because our charge goes far beyond achieving 100% renewable energy. Our charge is to support our community by reducing carbon emissions in ways that build and uplift the quality of life for everyone.”
Marty Adams, the LADWP’s general manager, said the utility will get to work right away.
“LADWP now has the tools and the road map to continue on the path to 100% renewables and we plan to start right away by developing a set of next steps … we need to begin these actions as soon as possible so we can stay on track to get to 100% renewables.”
Adams, McClain Hill, Mayor Eric Garcetti, City Council members and U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm joined together virtually Wednesday morning to announce the study’s results and express their hope that the plan becomes a blueprint for other cities across the nation.
“This study, what we’re unveiling today, is a paradigm shift. This is a whole different moment now in the question of how do we get off fossil fuels,” Councilman Mike Bonin said.
“For years we were told this can’t be done, and then we were told, `well maybe it can be done but it is going to be painful, it is going to mean problems with reliability, it is going to be disruptive, it is going to be really expensive’ … well this study calls BS on all of it,” Bonin added.
The study found that switching to renewable energy will likely have minimal impacts on the economy and jobs. In the worst-case scenario, according to USC economists’ models, average annual job losses could total about 3,600 over the entire planning period, but the moderate scenario anticipates gains of about 4,700 jobs annually between 2026 and 2045.
Researchers project about 8,600 construction jobs annually for the city to build production and transmission facilities for wind, solar and geothermal power, and another 2,000 maintenance jobs from 2026-45.
“For various alternative technology scenarios examined in the study, there could be slight positive or negative impacts compared with the minimal compliance scenario, but the changes are small compared to the 3.9 million jobs and $200 billion in annual output in the L.A. economy overall and thus have an almost negligible impact,” Dan Wei of the USC Price School of Public Policy said.
The study also found that zero-emissions technology would improve air quality and health, and that nitrogen oxide emissions would reduce by 86% to 95%. Additionally, emissions of fine particulate matter would reduce by 38% to 62%.
“The air pollution improvements would save lives and reduce pollution-induced illness. It would be noticeable, the sky would look cleaner,” USC Viterbi School professor George Ban-Weiss said.
Councilman Paul Krekorian said he hoped the study would lay the groundwork for other U.S. cities.
“I hope that the tools that we produced here will be used by utilities across the country in a way that will have an impact on the global climate and will be truly transformative not just for Los Angeles but for the world.
“This is a great moment for Los Angeles, but as we do so often, make no mistake about it, Los Angeles is leading the country right now,” he added.