Peninsula Advanced Energy Community (PAEC)

PAEC showcased the benefits of an AEC, a replicable approach to modernizing the electric grid. AEC projects can provide significant energy, environmental, economic, resilience, and security benefits, but major barriers too often impede their planning and deployment. Finding viable sites, securing project financing, and connecting AEC projects to the grid all represent serious challenges.

The PAEC initiative was designed to overcome these barriers and establish a replicable model that can be used by other communities across California and beyond. PAEC results will inform future action by policymakers, municipalities, governmental agencies, utility executives, and other key stakeholders.

• Incentivize and accelerate the planning, approval, financing, and deployment of AECs.
• Reduce the time, cost, and uncertainty associated with permitting and interconnecting commercial-scale solar and other DER.
• Leverage zero net energy, efficiency, local renewables, energy storage, and other DER to reduce 25 MW of peak energy across southern San Mateo County.
• Reduce the use of natural gas and minimize the need for expensive utility upgrades.
• Create a model project and project elements focused on increasing economic, environmental, and resilience benefits that can be replicated throughout California and beyond.

The PAEC Initiative studied projects that incorporate one or more components of an AEC and found dozens of projects worthy of emulation because they overcome economic or policy barriers. The team uncovered key findings about where to focus attention when developing AECs, in three main areas: economic, policy, and technical. The team also created a Master Community Design for an AEC in a disadvantaged community.

The PAEC initiative will foster the expansion of electric vehicles (EVs) by implementing smart designs, plans, and strategies for Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure (EVCI). Along with potential location evaluations, the PAEC team evaluated the cost-effectiveness to EV drivers of the EVCIs that offer the best value in terms of economic, environmental, and technical performance.

The new civic center plan for the Town of Atherton, in the PAEC region, studied key sustainable strategies that assist in lowering resource demand, including energy, water, material, and carbon. The study identified feasible, scalable, and regional strategies that can be easily replicated, while serving as an educational tool for the broader community.

The Clean Coalition’s Solar Siting Survey methodology evaluates all prospective solar sites and the interconnection hosting capacity for each site. The methodology assesses the technical siting potential for built-environment sites, including rooftops, parking lots, and parking garages, which are essential for procuring wholesale distributed generation. A Solar Siting Survey conducted in the PAEC region in March 2017 identified more than 400 prospective commercial-scale solar sites with over 65 MW of commercial-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) potential.

The PAEC team developed a methodology for prioritizing a set of model ordinances for further development, with associated recommendations for local government interventions in both existing buildings and new construction. Working with key stakeholders, the team identified AEC planning and permitting ordinances that can be scalable to other cities in the county and statewide.