One year later: Charting the path toward a clean energy future in the San Joaquin Valley
California’s clean energy policies are among the most ambitious in the world. Under SB 100, the state must achieve 100% zero-carbon electricity sales by 2045—requiring a massive buildout of new energy generation, supporting infrastructure, and clean fuel technologies. To meet these goals, California will need to more than quadruple its clean electricity supply, modernize its electric grid, and repurpose land and industrial assets at an unprecedented scale.
The San Joaquin Valley (SJV) is central to California’s clean energy transition, with abundant solar and biomass resources, an existing industrial base, skilled labor, academic institutions, major transportation corridors, and transmission infrastructure. These advantages position the region to lead on multiple clean energy fronts—from power generation to fuels and manufacturing—and a new opportunity to address longstanding disparities in air quality, investment, and economic mobility.
But the speed and scale of the energy buildout will depend not only on technical readiness or increased transmission capacity, but on something more fundamental: public confidence that these investments will deliver real, lasting value to local communities. As evidenced by CATF’s recent work in New England, social acceptance is emerging as a make-or-break factor for energy development across the county. A recent study found that, according to project developers, community opposition and restrictive local ordinances as a leading cause of project delays and cancellations. California is seeing these dynamics, with six counties—including several in the Valley—adopting restrictions on wind or solar development.
Energizing the transition in the San Joaquin Valley
The SJV is uniquely positioned to benefit from state policies driving the clean energy transition, and statewide analyses have underscored the SJV’s potential to host significant solar, wind, and transmission infrastructure crucial for meeting California’s climate goals.
Yet, the region also grapples with substantial challenges, including strained water resources, transitioning agricultural lands, a commodity-based economy that delivers few, quality jobs for its residents, and concentrated air and water pollution that have disproportionately impacted its communities. As agriculture and oil—two of its historic economic pillars—undergo transformative shifts, clean energy investments present an opportunity to drive economic growth, create high-quality jobs, and address long-standing inequities if the right level of strategic investments are made in the region.
Over the course of 2023 and 2024, CATF and our project team engaged local governments, community leaders, subject matter experts, and state agencies to explore what a clean energy future might look like in the SJV. The goal was to support the region in proactively shaping this transition—identifying preferred technologies, economic development strategies, and community benefit models that reflect both local priorities and statewide goals. This work aimed to strengthen the foundation for long-term success by supporting communities to see themselves as partners and drivers of the clean energy economy, rather than just hosts. CATF convened multiple knowledge-sharing sessions, supported by detailed quantitative modeling from RAND Corporation, with facilitated discussion on the tradeoffs and opportunities of various clean energy pathways. Discussions were grounded in a set of community-defined clean energy objectives that emphasized equity, high road jobs, wealth creation, public health, and building on existing assets.
We believe that a collaborative, integrated approach to planning for a clean energy future can guide clean energy and economic development investments that result in meaningful and transformative change for the region. This work tested that approach – and now, a year after we wrapped our facilitated engagement, we have more evidence to support that theory holds true.
Here, we highlight the progress and momentum local community leaders have spearheaded over the last year, and a look at what comes next.
Building the foundation for California jobs first
The economic development strategies, technology pathways, and community benefit models identified through CATF’s engagement in the SJV directly informed three major regional economic plans under California Jobs First (formerly the Community Economic Resilience Fund). California Jobs First is a $450 million state initiative aimed at empowering regions across the state to develop their own investment plans for building inclusive, climate-resilient economies. Much like the CATF-led effort, the California Jobs First process emphasized proactive planning, scenario modeling, and community-defined priorities—including high-road job creation, equitable investment, and coordinated permitting.
The S2J2 plan —representing Fresno, Madera, Tulare, and Kings counties—placed clean energy and fuels as a core part of its economic recovery strategy. The plan identifies energy as a foundational driver for regional revitalization, recognizing that the Valley is not just a site for deployment, but a place where clean energy innovation, development, and business activity across the clean energy value chain can be anchored. Clean energy is one of the S2J2 plan’s flagship industry clusters, alongside circular manufacturing and sustainable agriculture, and is projected to generate over 70,000 new jobs and $10 billion in clean energy investment by 2045.
Our region is poised to add 29 GW of clean energy electricity capacity by 2045, and the S2J2 Plan outlines strategies for how to include our local economy and communities as participants and benefactors of that economic growth.
Ashley Swearengin, President & CEO, CVCF
The North Valley Thrive Plan – representing San Joaquin, Stanislaus, and Merced counties – focuses on developing a high-road economy with four priority sectors: advanced manufacturing, clean energy, carbon management, and the circular bioeconomy. An organized approach to community benefits became a priority for the region, informed by the guiding principles established in the Valley wide effort.
Many of us in the Central Valley are taking on big opportunities, buoyed by the California Jobs First initiative. North Valley THRIVE, here in the northernmost part of the Valley, is helping design our own clean energy future. The timing of our collaboration with CATF was perfect – it informed our strategic planning and continues to shape our ambitious vision for clean energy. Beyond the thought partnership, we connected with a community of like-minded colleagues that were also reconciling resident voice and the needs of business and the agriculture community with the once-in-a-generation opportunity of this work.
Eric Serrato, Director North Valley Thrive & Executive Director, Merced County Workforce Development Board
Kern County’s Regional Plan focuses on three industries to leverage for economic development: clean energy, advanced manufacturing, and agriculture. Kern County has long leveraged energy infrastructure investments into the community and is embracing clean energy as an integral part of future economic development.
Advocating for community-determined community benefits
Clean energy infrastructure and investment can bring a range of positive local impacts – cleaner air, a more reliable grid, tax revenue, and jobs. Community benefits, formalized through signed agreements or other programs, can further boost these positive impacts, particularly for the host communities who may not always directly or tangibly feel the broader benefits. Additionally, well organized community benefits and trusted relationships between project developers and host communities can provide something incredibly valuable in an evolving project landscape – certainty. As an incentive to developers and clean energy proponents, projects with community partnerships and local acceptance stand the greatest chance of success.
During CATF’s engagement, SJV leaders identified lasting community benefits as a cornerstone to the clean energy transition and developed a set of guiding principles for projects. For too long in the Valley, the benefits of agricultural and fossil fuel industries have not been distributed equitably, and have left behind a legacy of environmental degradation, public health concerns, and insufficient local economic development. SJV leaders envision a different reality for clean energy, one where community benefits are a pre-requisite for all proposed projects, are equally experienced by all communities, and are determined by communities. Implementing this vision requires 1) intensive on-the-ground community engagement by trusted local organizers, and 2) close coordination among local governments. Momentum is already building.
In Western Fresno County, the non-profit Rural Communities Rising (RCR) formed in 2024 in response to the energy deployment potential identified by CATF and in anticipation of 200,000 acres of idle or fallowed agricultural lands that will be transitioned to utility-scale solar, battery storage, and green hydrogen facilities. RCR is a non-profit dedicated to connecting the area’s rural, historically underserved communities to collaboratively navigate the opportunities and significant changes brought by clean energy development. RCR is putting forward a new model aimed at developing robust community benefit agreements directly with impacted communities and streamlining and providing support for desirable clean energy projects.
Among others on our Fresno County team, I participated in the San Joaquin Valley engagement process sponsored by CATF in 2023-2024. This process not only produced a very valuable report we continue to use and share. It generated knowledge and conviction we needed to establish and grow Rural Communities Rising as an authentic self-determined community voice, organized to support the timely and efficient development of clean energy projects with community benefit agreements based on impacted community needs and project partnerships.
Felipe Perez, Board President, Rural Communities Rising
The Central Valley Community Foundation (CVCF) is another leader on community benefits in the Valley, as evidenced by a robust community benefits framework established in the S2J2 plan. The framework laid out by the S2J2 coalition recognizes that the typical approaches to community benefits have not been sufficient to “break cycles of economic extraction and improve the region’s socioeconomic, health, and wellbeing.” Their envisioned framework builds off the guiding principles for community benefits developed by CATF and local leaders. Their framework emphasizes capturing benefits through a consistent approach across the valley, with clear and specific requirements for developers, and distributing those benefits in an equitable and inclusive manner.
Delivering the promise – what comes next?
The most significant barrier to expanding clean energy capacity – and realizing the associated economic and community benefits – is the transmission infrastructure needed to move generated power to users across the grid. Not only does California have an aging grid that needs to be upgraded or replaced, but entirely new transmission infrastructure is urgently needed to meet growing electricity demand and connect new resources to the grid.
Yet that new infrastructure comes with a hefty price tag that directly impacts ratepayers, with no guarantee of local benefits or reduced energy rates for the communities hosting the energy. CAISO’s 2024 20-Year Outlook identified $46 to $63 billion of new high-voltage transmission to achieve the state’s SB 100 goal. Despite being one of the most productive regions for energy in the country, the SJV, along with the rest of the state, have some of the highest electricity rates in the country, with rates increasing quickly in recent years. Innovative models are needed to finance and build infrastructure while both protecting ratepayers and delivering local benefits to where the energy is both generated and connected into the grid.
In 2024, CATF and Net Zero California (NZC) commissioned research to evaluate whether alternative transmission financing tools such as bonds, loans, and public-private partnerships can lower costs, mitigate ratepayer impacts, and accelerate grid modernization. Our research suggests that adopting a public-private partnership approach could deliver considerable savings, potentially reducing costs by up to $3 billion annually, or around $123 billion over 40 years. Such an idea is gaining traction with recent legislation at the state level developed out of CATF’s findings, including in AB 825 (Petrie-Norris). Other models include establishing a Clean Energy Infrastructure Authority as envisioned in SB 254 (Becker) as part of the recent CA Senate’s energy affordability package, and SB 330 (Padilla) which would authorize the Governor to establish one or more transmission infrastructure pilot projects that would achieve ratepayer savings.
Other innovative approaches to financing that bring the benefits back to host communities are in the works. In March of 2024, PG&E announced efforts to raise $1 billion in funding for transmission infrastructure investments across northern and central California by leasing segments of its line to Citizens Energy – a non-profit that has played a role in energy ventures since 1979. Under the model, Citizens Energy provides money to lease a segment of the line, guaranteeing them a rate of return similar to the utility. However, as a non-profit they reinvest 50% of the profits back into the impacted communities with programs and projects specifically targeted at expanding clean energy access to low-income communities. Citizens Energy has previously taken stake in two major transmission lines in California, the Sunrise Powerlink and Sycamore-Peñasquitos line, both developed by SDG&E. Profits from those programs went to building a community solar facility and expanding access to electric vehicle infrastructure in impacted communities.
The benefits of clean energy, along with the energy itself, should be delivered to the communities that host the energy infrastructure. These projects can be integrated explicitly into some of the region’s biggest projects, as well as municipal and community scale projects.
Modeled on success
The progress over the last year was ignited by a proactive and coordinated effort to bring the region together around shared challenges and opportunities. It is a theory of change we believe will continue to prove successful, but only because it was built on a foundation of visionary local leadership and communities who are open to embracing change when tied to real, local benefits. Still, this is only the beginning.
While the SJV has its own unique circumstances, the lessons learned here hold value far beyond. This model offers a replicable blueprint for regions and states across the country who are facing a similar inflection point. Those who engage early, leveraging the clean energy development in alignment with long term community goals, will be the best positioned to lead and benefit from the transition ahead.
To learn more about CATF’s work in the San Joaquin Valley, view our full report.
