BART took bold action today to fulfill its ambition to be the first transit agency in the country powered by 100% renewables.
Following BART’s adoption of an aggressive and industry-leading Sustainability Policy in 2016 and a Wholesale Electricity Portfolio Policy earlier in 2017, the BART Board of Directors today approved two 20-year renewable energy power purchase agreements. These agreements would ensure that 90% of BART’s load will be powered by renewable electricity and the remainder would be powered by other low and zero-carbon sources.
“This establishes BART as the country’s most climate-forward transportation agency,” said BART District 8 Director Nick Josefowitz. “Not only will BART soon be powered by almost 100% renewable electricity, but we’re doing it cheaper than by buying fossil fuels! This is the leadership we need to be showing to the rest of the country.”
By entering into 20-year renewable power purchase agreements, BART will be saving almost $174m compared to the projected costs of its existing power contracts.
BART’s renewable power will be generated by a new 61.7 MW (megawatt) wind energy project developed by NextEra Energy Resources and a new 45 MW solar energy project developed by Recurrent Energy. Both projects will be located in Kern County, California and are expected to be online by January 1, 2021.
The new agreements were made possible by California Senate Bill 502, which was authored by then San Francisco State Senator Mark Leno, and approved by the state legislature and signed by Governor Brown in 2015. That bill allows BART to directly procure electricity from renewable energy producers.
This large-scale renewable procurement is in addition to BART’s on-site solar program which has seen the construction of new solar power plants across the BART system, including at the new Warm Springs Station.
At today’s meeting, the BART Board also approved a renewable diesel purchase contract which would ensure that the diesel-powered eBART trains as well as BART’s heavy duty maintenance vehicles would be powered by this low carbon fuel. These actions taken together would dramatically reduce BART’s carbon footprint, and provide an example to other transportation agencies around the country of how to slash carbon emissions while slashing costs.
BART currently uses about 400,000 MWh (megawatt hours) of electricity every year. That’s slightly more than the electricity needs of the city of Alameda and makes BART one of the largest electricity users in Northern California. Ultimately, BART plans to get 100% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2045, at the latest.
3 comments
Like all projects started by Bart this is another joke. Good luck. They should have started this years and years ago but no one at Bart thinks, at all.
Plus one on Julio’s comment. Meanwhile, BART still disgusting and overridden with the SAME returning losers who vandalize, disrupt, and destroy every time they are in the system. Until, they get rid if they people, all repairs, on the rare occasion made, are just waste
of taxpayer dollars. Prohibition Order, LOL!
Maybe the “wind” BART will be powered with will be the one passed by some of the disgusting riders and the lice some of them carry on their clothing.
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