Two former governors were in Clovis today to celebrate renewable energy milestones. At Clovis Unified’s Buchanan High School, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jerry Brown were presented with the one-millionth solar panel to go on a roof in California.
The panel in question was about the height of a door, and double the width. It took two people to carry it out on stage.
Flanked by high school students and solar workers, the former governors touted the state’s energy policies, and took a jab at the federal government.
“They don’t have to come up with a New Green Deal or anything new,” said Schwarzenegger. “They should just go and copy California.”
Schwarzanegger also said that the state consistently has “under-promised and over-delivered” in achieving its goals. In 2006, Schwarzenegger signed into law a bill incentivizing solar roof projects with the goal of developing a million solar roofs in the state. Now that over a million roofs have been converted, he and Brown are turning their attention to developing a million solar batteries.
“I don’t want to scare you, but we’re in big trouble and if we don’t do something, things will get a lot worse,” Brown said in his closing remarks. “You can make a difference. If you can make a robot, you can build a better world.”
Last year Brown signed a bill calling for all of California’s electricity to come from renewable sources by 2045.
Both gentlemen made greenhouse gas reduction and creating renewable energy pillars of their administrations.
The pair toured Buchanan High School’s career technical education center, and met students building their own robots and learning engineering skills. The Clovis school was chosen for the presentation because of the district’s aggressive adoption of solar projects.
The state has surpassed its goal of getting a quarter of its energy from renewable sources by 2020. As of 2018, the state measured that 30 percent of electricity came from renewable sources.
