Sonoma Clean Power Marks 10-Year Milestone; CEO talks about the future

In early May, Sonoma Clean Power celebrated 10 years of providing clean energy to Sonoma and Mendocino Counties with numerous projects and initiatives.

The Press Democrat sat down with Sonoma Clean Power CEO Geof Syphers to talk about the successes so far and what’s ahead for the government agency.

Responses have been edited for length and clarity.

PD: Tell us the history of Sonoma Clean Power and the origins of this agency.

Syphers: We premiered in May 2014 and this model turned out to be incredibly durable, beyond all expectations. When a public entity, such as the cities of Sonoma County and ultimately Mendocino, decides it wants to be an energy supplier, the state states, “if you vote for it, you will become the default energy supplier.” This means that everyone is your customer unless they say they don’t want to be one.

The model has proven to be extremely valuable because almost everyone stays with us. We remove all profit from the system and everything that was supposed to be profitable is now a saving.

PD: What does Sonoma Clean Power do for customers? How is this different from PG&E?

Syphers: We’re in the power generation business, so we’re not in the power lines or infrastructure business. This is PG&E. Essentially, we feed energy into the grid to our customers and then support them with a range of other programs, incentives and hand-holding here and there.

We project to save Sonoma County over $100 million over the next two years, which equates to approximately $100-200 per household.

It’s really about accelerating solutions to the climate crisis, trying to build renewable energy faster, and helping customers navigate the pretty complicated world we find ourselves in.

PD: Sonoma Clean Power also recently opened a Customer Center in downtown Santa Rosa in 2021. What role does it play for customers?

Syphers: We are really moving towards making our business in education clear. Our class is a really popular thing we have here. We run many free classes where you can learn how to hire a contractor, how to work with different technologies, how to buy an electric car, and more.

We also have a demonstration kitchen where people come and try to cook without gas. We have this magnetic cooker system that heats the surface of the pot or pan without causing anything in between to heat up. We like to demonstrate by placing a bar of chocolate next to the pan so that the pan heats up and the chocolate doesn’t melt. Customers can make an appointment or take a walk from Tuesday to Saturday.

PD: Sonoma Clean Power has been providing clean energy to households in Sonoma and Mendocino for 10 years. What has the agency achieved over the last decade?

Syphers: Just a few months after launch, we signed a contract to deliver 70 megawatts of new solar energy – enough energy to power 21,000 homes – and that wouldn’t have been possible if Sonoma Clean Power’s structure and legislative architecture made it feasible.

This is feasible because we inherited all of our power generation customers in this region from PG&E. Back then (customers in 2014 and 2015) were paying about $100 million a year for manufacturing costs, which is a lot of money, and we were able to use the credit from that revenue to purchase a $200 million solar system called the Mustang Facility in 2017.

This financial structure has become an asset and a local resource. Since then, the company has grown and our revenues are now more than double. Now we are able to close many more deals.

PD: What’s next?

Syphers: Our goal is to build 600 megawatts of new geothermal energy. This would double the size of the geysers in terms of efficiency. I couldn’t have dreamed of this 10 years ago.

We were trying to find a way to meet California’s 100% renewable energy goals. The first 50-70% of this is pretty easy. You can do solar, you can do wind and some battery power.

But the last 20-30% is much more difficult because when winter comes, there is no sunlight for five days in a row, so the solar energy does not provide much, the batteries are dead and the winds stop blowing.

Sonoma County licensing agencies have authorized the use of more geothermal energy than anywhere on Earth.

Already in 2020, we created a geothermal opportunity zone.

So one of our team members really got us interested in this almost three years ago, and ever since we’ve been working on identifying private partners that we could work with who have the skills to do this and who also have some potential to bring technologies that could help other parts of the country.

And it’s not just Sonoma Clean Power alone, because the climate crisis is everywhere. We really wanted to contribute to solving a global problem.

We selected three companies, each of which had innovative technology that is almost ready for commercial use. These companies are: Cyrq Energy, Eavor and Chevron New Energies.

These are the three we are excited about and if any of them work, it will be a big deal.

This is not only good for the climate, but also for air quality and the fact that these gas-fired power plants rely on fracking, which heavily pollutes groundwater. There are many advantages of such work.

Staff writer Sara Edwards can be reached at 707-521-5487 or sara.edwards@pressdemocrat. comm. On Twitter @sedwards380.