Emerging Technologies Review 2023: Beyond Efficiency to Electrification in California
The 2035 Initiative’s Emerging Technology Review brought together advocates, academics, government officials, and private sector leaders to discuss our electrified future and how to achieve it. To distill the workshop’s key recommendations and lessons learned, the following memo discusses: 1) the benefits of electrification, 2) California’s electrification successes, 3) the next steps that California should take to accelerate electrification, 4) how IRA investments will supercharge electrification, and 5) how electrification can advance equity and justice.
Author: Lucas Boyd, The 2035 Initiative
Emerging Technology Review 2023 Panelists
Ari Matusiak, Co-founder & CEO, Rewiring America
David Hochschild, Chair of the California Energy Commission
Sonia Aggarwal, CEO of Energy Innovation
Hannah Bascom, VP Regulated Business, SPAN
Samantha Ortega, Government Relations Manager, ChargerHelp
Vince Romanin, CEO, Gradient
DR Richardson, Co-Founder at Elephant Energy
Le-Quyen Nguyen, Deputy Secretary for Energy at CNRA
Merrian Borgeson, Director, California Policy, Climate & Clean Energy Program
Leah Stokes, Anton Vonk Associate Professor of Environmental Politics, UC Santa Barbara
California has bold electrification targets, paired with well-crafted policy and meaningful investments. But even in California, we have a long way to go.
Cars and appliances are becoming increasingly efficient, using less energy to deliver the same results. But if they continue to run on fossil fuels, even the most efficient machines threaten public health, waste money, and warm the planet. In 2023, efficiency isn’t enough to solve our greatest challenges. It’s time to move beyond efficiency to electrification.
This is no small task in a fossil-fuel dominated world. In the U.S. there are currently 275 million vehicles, 132 million space and water heaters, 95 million cooking devices, and 19 million clothes dryers powered by polluting fossil fuels like fracked gas, propane, and gasoline. Mass electrification requires replacing each fossil-powered vehicle and appliance at the end of its life cycle — or earlier — with an electric alternative. Powering these electric machines with clean energy will require millions of additional electric devices such as rooftop solar panels, breaker boxes, battery storage, and vehicle chargers. According to Rewiring America, a total of approximately one billion machines across the U.S. need to be electrified. With the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) injecting billions into the clean energy economy, there has never been a better time to electrify the country.
California is leading the charge. The state has set bold electrification targets, and is backing them up with well-crafted policy and meaningful investments. But even in California, we have a long way to go. Policymakers, businesses, and individuals should take immediate action to:
● Reduce consumption of fossil gas;
● Reduce electricity prices for consumers;
● Prepare the grid for full electrification;
● Electrify California’s schools;
● Electrify industrial processes;
● Remove the obligation to serve for gas utilities;
● Adopt grid-interactive home technologies; and
● Train the next generation of electrification workers.