Southern California leads the nation in its commitment to clean energy, and we’re making real progress with solar and wind powering our grid more and more every day.
But as energy costs continue to drive instability at the pump, in the skies and in household budgets, real concerns for our energy future persist. Gas prices remain high while airlines cut flights, and grocery bills continue to soar.
Meanwhile, the growth in our solar energy supply has ushered in growing curtailment because supply and demand don’t match. One-hundred percent clean energy is a noble pursuit, but renewable electricity alone can’t decarbonize sectors like port operations, heavy-duty trucking, maritime shipping and aviation, nor other sectors that run on liquid fuel.
Our power sector is also facing significant challenges brought on by extreme heat waves, wildfires and increased electricity demand from electric vehicles and data centers. Keeping the lights on requires firm, dispatchable power for the cloudy, calm days when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing.
Today, that firm power is provided by natural gas. But there is a solution for meeting our energy needs and preserving our clean energy grid: green hydrogen.
Green hydrogen is a carbon-free fuel made from renewable electricity and water. It can displace fossil fuels in power plants, trucks and at the ports. And as Los Angeles leaders and policy makers move to make LA 100, the city’s plan to transition to a 100% carbon-free power supply by 2035 a reality, the moment to address our energy woes with green hydrogen is upon us.
Green hydrogen is already a shovel-ready energy source. Projects like the Lancaster Clean Energy Center have safe-harbored $1.8 billion in federal tax credits for a project built around 694 megawatts of solar and 900 megawatts of battery storage, enough solar to comfortably power hundreds of thousands of homes. Projects like these need long-term offtake contracts to break ground, and when they do, green hydrogen can go to work immediately: it can displace fossil gas in all existing Southern California turbines with only minor retrofits, up to 45% by volume, using infrastructure we already have.
The move to green hydrogen also drives meaningful job creation that actually builds a middle class for communities across Southern California. The backbone of Los Angeles’ energy future should include local, highly skilled labor, apprenticeship opportunities and real, family-sustaining wages.
A shovel-ready solution
The Lancaster Clean Energy Center alone represents more than 1,200 high-skilled union careers. The tradespeople who are building projects like these & building L.A.’s future economic base come from all walks of life, including many in communities that have too often been left out of California’s clean energy economy.
In terms of viability, recent developments both within the California state legislature and the Los Angeles City Council have paved the way for integrating green hydrogen as a clean energy resource.
On June 29, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law SB 1350, formally recognizing renewable hydrogen use in gas turbines as an eligible resource under California’s Renewables Portfolio Standard. And earlier this month, the Los Angeles City Council approved the final Environmental Impact Report for the Scattergood Generating Station Repowering Project which seeks to modernize a power plant in Playa del Ray operated by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, replacing natural-gas steam with at least 30% green hydrogen.
On paper, it’s a permitting milestone. In practice, it is both a green light for LA100 and the starting gun for something much bigger.
LA100 exists because Los Angeles set out to prove a 100% clean grid is achievable, and LADWP’s planned use of green hydrogen in Scattergood and all their in-basin powerplants is key to getting us there. Retiring it without a reliable replacement isn’t an option but converting it to run on green hydrogen is.
When it comes to keeping the lights on, cleaning our grid and creating jobs, green hydrogen is an obvious solution. It’s a way to bank solar energy for days or weeks and release it when it’s needed; the exact kind of long-duration storage the grid is missing. SB 1350 confirms it, and Scattergood’s approval sends a clear market signal to hydrogen producers: Los Angeles is ready to buy.
That’s exactly why the power sector is the place to start. Because it can scale immediately, procuring green hydrogen for power generation opens the door to scaling demand across every sector that has no other decarbonization option, whether it be port operations, heavy-duty trucking or transit buses. The bigger the demand, the lower the cost, and the faster we displace diesel and the pollution that comes with it. Los Angeles gets the greatest return by moving on all fronts at once: power, transit and the ports, together.
With the bureaucratic obstacles mitigated, it’s time for our city agencies to act. Angelenos need Mayor Karen Bass to direct the Department of Water and Power, alongside the Port of Los Angeles, LAX and Metro, to begin procuring green hydrogen immediately.
Let’s put local workers to work with local resources, decouple Los Angeles from forces beyond our control and keep this city at the front of the global clean energy economy.
Ernesto Medrano is executive secretary of the Los Angeles/Orange Counties Building and Construction Trades Council, representing 48 local unions and district councils across 14 trades, with membership totaling more than 160,000 skilled union construction workers.