Bill Text: CA SB688 | 2023-2024 | Regular Session | Introduced
NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft
Bill Title: Agrivoltaic systems: grant funding.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Engrossed) 2023-09-01 - September 1 hearing: Held in committee and under submission. [SB688 Detail]
Download: California-2023-SB688-Introduced.html
Bill Title: Agrivoltaic systems: grant funding.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Engrossed) 2023-09-01 - September 1 hearing: Held in committee and under submission. [SB688 Detail]
Download: California-2023-SB688-Introduced.html
CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE—
2023–2024 REGULAR SESSION
Senate Bill
No. 688
| Introduced by Senator Padilla |
February 16, 2023 |
An act to amend Section 51201 of the Government Code, and to add Chapter 10.6 (commencing with Section 25920) to Division 15 of the Public Resources Code, relating to energy.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 688, as introduced, Padilla.
Agrivoltaic systems.
Existing law requires the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission to undertake various actions in furtherance of meeting the state’s clean energy and pollution reduction objectives.
This bill would state the policy of the state to promote the development of agrivoltaic systems, as defined, in furtherance of clean energy development, reducing emissions of greenhouse gases, working land conservation, and other state priorities. The bill would require the commission, in coordination with specified entities, to develop a strategic plan for agrivoltaic systems, as provided. The bill would require the commission to evaluate and quantify the maximum feasible capacity of agrivoltaic systems to achieve reliability, ratepayers, employment, and decarbonization benefits, and to establish megawatt agrivoltaic
planning goals for 2030 and 2045. The bill would require the commission to assess the transmission investments and upgrades necessary to support the 2030 and 2045 goals. The bill would require the commission to develop and produce a permitting roadmap describing timeframes and milestones for a coordinated, comprehensive, and efficient permitting process for agrivoltaic systems and associated electricity and transmission infrastructure.
Existing law requires the commission to establish and administer the Climate Innovation Program to provide financial incentives to California-headquartered companies for developing and commercializing technologies that can either help California meet its greenhouse gas reduction targets and achieve its climate goals, or enable the state to be more resilient to the impacts of climate change, as specified. Existing law authorizes the commission to administer the Renewable Energy for Agriculture Program to provide grants that encourage
the installation of renewable energy technologies serving agricultural operations to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. Under existing law, the Department of Food and Agriculture established the State Water Efficiency and Enhancement Program to provide financial incentives to farmers to improve irrigation management in ways that save water and energy while reducing emissions of greenhouse gases.
This bill would specify that agrivoltaic systems are eligible for funding under the above-described programs and other relevant programs administered by the commission or the department addressing the impacts of climate change.
The Williamson Act authorizes a city or county to contract with a landowner to limit the use of land devoted to agricultural use or located in an agricultural preserve designated by the city or county in exchange for reduced property tax assessments.
This bill would specify that the use of land for an agrivoltaic system is an “agricultural use” for purposes of the Williamson Act. The bill also would make numerous nonsubstantive changes to the provision defining terms for purposes of the act.
Digest Key
Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: NOBill Text
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
SECTION 1.
The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:(a) California should lead the nation in deployment of agrivoltaic systems, which are solar energy systems integrated into agricultural production within the same land area, also referred to as agrisolar or dual-use solar.
(b) Agrivoltaic systems enable farmers to harvest both agricultural products and solar energy from the same acre of land, improving overall land productivity. Important potential cobenefits include reduced water, fertilizer, and pesticide consumption, improved soil health and crop productivity, and meaningful revenue or energy cost savings for farmers.
(c) Agrivoltaics can promote California agriculture by helping farmers keep their land in productive agricultural use, rather than being converted to alternate land uses due to cost pressures, water availability, or commercial development.
(d) California faces significant energy reliability challenges and agrivoltaics offer an important use case for combined solar and energy storage systems, promoting energy resilience in rural communities, and protecting the food supply chain.
(e) Agrivoltaics offer a promising win-win solution that experts say could be applied across 8,100 square miles of United States farmland, mostly in the western states where irrigated agriculture is most common, generating 1,350 gigawatthours of clean electricity, which is more than enough to power every home in the country.
(f) Development of agrivoltaic systems can also further the goal of conservation of 30 percent of California’s working lands by 2030.
(g) Agrivoltaic systems should be developed in a manner that protects agricultural lands and production of agricultural commodities. The state should use its authority under state programs and policies to ensure the avoidance, minimization, and mitigation of significant adverse impacts on working lands and agricultural production, and monitoring and adaptive management of agrivoltaic systems and their associated infrastructure.
SEC. 2.
Section 51201 of the Government Code is amended to read:51201.
As used in this chapter, unless otherwise apparent from the context, the following terms have the following meanings:(a) “Agricultural commodity” means any and all plant and animal products produced in this state for commercial purposes, including, but not limited to, plant products used for producing biofuels, and industrial hemp cultivated in accordance with Division 24 (commencing with Section 81000) of the Food and Agricultural Code.
(b) “Agricultural use” means use of land, including including, but not limited to
to, greenhouses, for the purpose of producing an agricultural commodity for commercial purposes. The use of land for an agrivoltaic system, as defined in Section 25920 of the Public Resources Code, is an agricultural use.
(c) “Prime agricultural land” means any of the following:
(1) All land that qualifies for rating as class I or class II in the Natural Resource Conservation Service land use capability classifications.
(2) Land which that qualifies for rating 80 through 100 in the
Storie Index Rating.
(3) Land which that supports livestock used for the production of food and fiber and which that has an annual carrying capacity equivalent to at least one animal unit per acre as defined by the United States Department of Agriculture.
(4) Land planted with fruit- or nut-bearing trees, vines, bushes, or crops which that
have a nonbearing period of less than five years and which that will normally return during the commercial bearing period on an annual basis from the production of unprocessed agricultural plant production not less than two hundred dollars ($200) per acre.
(5) Land which that has returned from the production of unprocessed agricultural plant products an annual gross value of not less than two hundred dollars ($200) per acre for three of the previous five years.
(d) “Agricultural preserve”
means an area devoted to either agricultural use, use as defined in subdivision (b), recreational use as defined in subdivision (n), or open-space use as defined in subdivision (o), or any combination of those uses and which that is established in accordance with the provisions of this chapter.
(e) “Compatible use” is
means any use determined by the county or city administering the preserve pursuant to Section 51231, 51238, or 51238.1 or by this act to be compatible with the agricultural, recreational, or open-space use of land within the preserve and subject to contract. “Compatible use” includes agricultural use, recreational use use, or open-space use unless the board or council finds after notice and hearing that the use is not compatible with the agricultural, recreational recreational, or open-space use to which the land is restricted by contract pursuant to this chapter.
(f) “Board” means the board of supervisors of a county which that establishes or proposes to establish an agricultural preserve or which that enters or proposes to enter into a contract on land within an agricultural preserve pursuant to this chapter.
(g) “Council” means the city council of a city which that
establishes or proposes to establish an agricultural preserve or which that enters or proposes to enter into a contract on land within an agricultural preserve pursuant to this chapter.
(h) Except where it is otherwise apparent from the context, “county” or “city” means the county or city having jurisdiction over the land.
(i) A “scenic “Scenic highway corridor” is
means an area adjacent to, and within view of, the right-of-way of: of either of the following:
(1) An existing or proposed state scenic highway in the state scenic highway system established by the Legislature pursuant to Article 2.5 (commencing with Section 260) of Chapter 2 of Division 1 of the Streets and Highways Code and which has been officially designated by the Department of Transportation as an official state scenic highway; or highway.
(2) A county scenic
highway established pursuant to Article 2.5 (commencing with Section 260) of Chapter 2 of Division 1 of the Streets and Highways Code, if each all of the following conditions have been met:
(A) The scenic highway is included in an adopted general plan of the county or city; and city.
(B) The scenic highway corridor is included in an adopted specific plan of the county or city; and
city.
(C) Specific proposals for implementing the plan, including regulation of land use, have been approved by the Advisory Committee on a Master Plan for Scenic Highways, and the county or city highway has been officially designated by the Department of Transportation as an official county scenic highway.
(j) A “wildlife “Wildlife habitat area” is means a land or water area designated by a board or council, after consulting with and considering the recommendation
of the Department of Fish and Game, Wildlife, as an area of importance for the protection or enhancement of the wildlife resources of the state.
(k) A “saltpond” is “Saltpond” means an area which, that, for at least three consecutive years immediately prior to
before being placed within an agricultural preserve pursuant to this chapter, has been used for the solar evaporation of seawater in the course of salt production for commercial purposes.
(l) A “managed “Managed wetland area” is means an area, which may be an area diked off from the ocean or any bay, river river, or stream to which water is
occasionally admitted, and which, that, for at least three consecutive years immediately prior to before being placed within an agricultural preserve pursuant to this chapter, was used and maintained as a waterfowl hunting preserve or game refuge refuge, or for agricultural purposes.
(m) A “submerged “Submerged
area” is means
any land determined by the board or council to be submerged or subject to tidal action and found by the board or council to be of great value to the state as open space.
(n) “Recreational (1) “Recreational use” is means the use of land in its agricultural or natural state by the public, with or without charge, for any of the following: walking, hiking, picnicking, camping, swimming, boating, fishing, hunting, or other outdoor games or sports for which facilities are provided for public participation. Any
following purposes:
(A) Walking.
(B) Hiking.
(C) Picnicking.
(D) Camping.
(E) Swimming.
(F) Boating.
(G) Fishing.
(H) Hunting.
(I) Other outdoor games or sports for which facilities are provided for public participation.
(2) Any fee charged for the
recreational use of land as defined in this subdivision shall be in a reasonable amount and shall not have the effect of unduly limiting its use by the public. Any ancillary structures necessary for a recreational use shall comply with the provisions of Section 51238.1.
(o) “Open-space use” is means the use or maintenance of land in a manner that preserves its natural characteristics, beauty, or openness for the benefit and enjoyment of the public, to provide habitat for wildlife, or for the solar evaporation of seawater in the course of salt production for commercial purposes, if the land is within:
within any of the following:
(1) A scenic highway corridor, as defined in subdivision (i).
(2) A wildlife habitat area, as defined in subdivision (j).
(3) A saltpond, as defined in subdivision (k).
(4) A managed wetland area, as defined in subdivision (l).
(5) A submerged area, as defined in subdivision (m).
(6) An area enrolled in the United States Department of Agriculture Conservation Reserve Program or Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program.
(p) “Development” means, as used in Section 51223, the construction of
buildings or the use of the restricted property if the buildings or use are unrelated to the agricultural use, the open-space use, or uses compatible with either agricultural or open-space uses of the property, or substantially impair the agricultural, open-space, or a combination of the agricultural and open-space uses of the property. Agricultural use, open-space use, uses compatible with either agricultural or open-space uses, or the acquisition of land or an interest in land are not development.
SEC. 3.
Chapter 10.6 (commencing with Section 25920) is added to Division 15 of the Public Resources Code, to read:CHAPTER 10.6. Agrivoltaic Systems
25920.
(a) For purposes of this chapter, “agrivoltaic system” means a dual-use system that allows for the simultaneous use of land for both agriculture and photovoltaic electrical generation on the same land.(b) An agrivoltaic system includes a solar energy generation system in unused portions of land parcels used for center-pivot agricultural production.
25921.
It is the policy of the state to promote the development of agrivoltaic systems in furtherance of clean energy development, reductions in the emissions of greenhouse gases, working land conservation, and other state priorities.25922.
(a) (1) The commission, in coordination with the Department of Food and Agriculture, the Office of Planning and Research, the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development, the Independent System Operator, the Public Utilities Commission, and other relevant federal, state, and local agencies, shall develop a strategic plan for agrivoltaic systems.(2) Development of the strategic plan shall incorporate, but not delay, progress to advance responsible development of agrivoltaic systems in other relevant policy venues.
(b) The strategic plan shall include, at minimum, all of the following:
(1) Transmission planning, including the findings resulting from activities undertaken pursuant to Section 25924.
(2) Permitting, including the findings resulting from activities undertaken pursuant to Section 25925.
(3) Potential impacts on agricultural resources and strategies for addressing those potential impacts.
(4) Economic and workforce development needed to support the 2030 and 2045 agrivoltaic system planning goals established under Section 25923.
(c) The strategic plan shall emphasize and prioritize near-term actions to accommodate the probable immediate need for jobs and economic development.
(d) The development of the strategic plan regarding workforce development shall include consultation with representatives of key labor organizations and apprenticeship programs that would be involved in dispatching and training the construction workforce.
(e) The commission shall provide an opportunity for public review and comment on a draft strategic plan.
25923.
(a) The commission shall evaluate and quantify the maximum feasible capacity of agrivoltaic systems to achieve reliability, ratepayer, employment, and decarbonization benefits, and shall establish megawatt agrivoltaic planning goals for 2030 and 2045.(b) In establishing the goals pursuant to subdivision (a), the commission shall consider all of the following:
(1) The findings of the 2021 joint report issued pursuant to Section 454.53 of the Public Utilities Code.
(2) The need to develop a skilled and trained agrivoltaic workforce.
(3) The potential to
attract supply-chain manufacturing for agrivoltaic components throughout the state.
(4) The need for reliable renewable energy that accommodates California’s shifting peak load.
(5) The generation profile of agrivoltaic systems in California.
(6) The need for economies of scale to reduce the costs of agrivoltaic systems.
(7) The need to initiate long-term transmission and infrastructure planning to facilitate delivery of agrivoltaic energy to Californians.
(8) The availability of federal tax incentives for agrivoltaic investments.
(9) Any executive action from the Governor regarding agrivoltaic.
(10) Potential impacts on agricultural resources and strategies for addressing those potential impacts.
25924.
(a) The commission, in consultation with the Public Utilities Commission and the Independent System Operator, shall assess the transmission investments and upgrades necessary to support the 2030 and 2045 agrivoltaic system planning goals established pursuant to Section 25923. This assessment shall include all relevant information on the cost of high-voltage transmission, information made available by the Independent System Operator on the cost of network upgrades, and the extent to which existing transmission infrastructure and available capacity could support agrivoltaic energy development.(b) The findings resulting from activities undertaken pursuant to this section shall be
included in the chapter of the strategic plan relating to transmission planning as specified in paragraph (1) of subdivision (b) of Section 25922.
25925.
(a) The commission shall develop and produce a permitting roadmap that describes timeframes and milestones for a coordinated, comprehensive, and efficient permitting process for agrivoltaic systems and associated electricity and transmission infrastructure in the state.(b) In developing the permitting roadmap, the commission shall consult and meaningfully collaborate with all relevant local, state, and federal agencies, including, but not limited to, the Department of Food and Agriculture, interested California Native American tribes, and affected stakeholders.
(c) The permitting roadmap shall include a goal for the permitting timeframe, clearly define local, state, and federal agency roles, responsibilities, and decisionmaking authority, and include interfaces with federal agencies, including timing, sequence, and coordination with federal permitting agencies, and coordination between reviews under the California Environmental Quality Act (Division 13 (commencing with Section 21000)) and the federal National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. Sec. 4321 et seq.), if applicable.
(d) The commission shall provide an opportunity for stakeholder input in the development and communication of the permitting roadmap and an opportunity for public comment on a draft permitting roadmap.
(e) The findings resulting from activities undertaken pursuant to this section shall be included in the chapter of the strategic plan relating to permitting as specified in paragraph (2) of subdivision (b) of Section 25922.
25926.
(a) In furtherance of the goals set forth in Section 25925, agrivoltaic systems shall be eligible for funding under any of the following:(1) The Climate Innovation Program (Chapter 7.2 (commencing with Section 25625)).
(2) The Renewable Energy for Agriculture Program authorized pursuant to Chapter 249 of the Statutes of 2017 and Chapter 30 of the Statutes of 2018.
(3) The State Water Efficiency and Enhancement Program established by the Department of Food and Agriculture from moneys made available pursuant to Chapter 2 of the Statutes of 2014.
(4) Any
other relevant programs administered by the commission or the Department of Food and Agriculture addressing the impacts of climate change.
(b) The commission and the Department of Food and Agriculture, as appropriate, shall develop guidelines for agrivoltaic systems for programs specified in subdivision (a).
(c) The commission, in coordination with the Department of Food and Agriculture, shall provide technical assistance to farmers to support their participation in the programs specified in subdivision (a).
