INFOGRAPHIC CREDIT: LAWRENCE TSUEI
The paper assesses the scale of the path forward and calls for immediate action. Some highlights include:
- The average household will save on energy costs. Because of reduced fossil fuel spending and the greater efficiency of electric vehicles and appliances, the average Southern California Edison customer will see a savings of about 40% in household energy expenses by 2045.
- The grid must support the use of three times more utility-scale clean energy sources than today.
- Investing must accelerate in emerging clean energy technologies that complement solar generation and energy storage, as they must comprise up to 15% of total utility-scale resources.
- New transmission and distribution grid projects must be added at up to four times and 10 times their historical rates, respectively.
- The state will require about $370 billion of incremental transmission, distribution and utility-scale clean-energy investments.
- Significant reform in planning, permitting and siting processes is required to expedite the buildout.
Countdown to 2045 calls for an additional approximately 90 gigawatts (GW) of utility-scale clean generation and around 25 GW of utility-scale energy storage plus more than 15 GW each of behind-the-meter solar and storage.
This paper is an update to SCE’s 2019 Pathway 2045. A key driver for the refreshed analysis is California’s Assembly Bill 1279, which made the state’s net-zero goal into law last year and established a deeper requirement for direct reductions of greenhouse gas emissions. While AB 1279 calls for a feasibility evaluation by 2035, Countdown to 2045 identifies several feasibility challenges that must be taken into consideration quickly, before 2035, as part of the state’s ongoing evaluation of options to meet decarbonization goals.
Edison is committed to helping California reach its ambitious goal of mitigating the impacts of climate change and sees this set of approaches as a model for other states and nations. The accelerating effects of climate change include extreme weather events taking place across the country. According to 2023 NOAA data, so far this year, the U.S. alone has seen 23 climate-related disasters that cost at least $1 billion each, surpassing the previous annual record of 22 events in 2020.
For more information and to download the paper, visit edison.com/countdownto2045.