Energy Market Transformation Imminent, SDG&E President,
San Diego Mayor Predict at UC San Diego Conference

Ioana Patringenaru | May 9, 2011

San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders touts the region during the California Clean Innovation Conference at UCSD last week.
Photos/Erik Jepsen

The energy sector will undergo a major transformation in coming years as renewable sources take on increased importance, SDG&E President Michael Niggli told an audience of about 300 entrepreneurs, business people and students at UC San Diego last week. And the San Diego region will play a major part in this transformation, said San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders.

Sanders and Niggli were on campus as keynote speakers for the fifth annual California Clean Innovation Conference, hosted by the UCSD Rady School of Management and the UCLA Anderson School of Management. The one-day event included several panels on clean energy, biofuels, solar energy and government regulation. It also included a Fast Pitch Business Plan Competition, which came with a $10,000 cash prize.

“This conference is unique because it gives people the opportunity to exchange ideas and have an open dialogue about the clean tech industry, sparking creativity and enterprise,” said Rady Dean Robert S. Sullivan. “Our hope is that the connections made at the CACI conference serve as a catalyst for the growth of the clean tech industry in California.”

Mike Niggli, president of SDG&E, answers a student's question after his talk.

These are exciting times in California, San Diego Mayor Sanders said. More than ever, the state, and the nation, need to return to their innovative roots, he said.

“We need to be a prosperous, productive nation without leaving a destructive path in our wake,” Sanders said.

 In San Diego alone, 700 companies are developing technologies and strategies to use clean power.  For example, they’re turning restaurant waste and algae, or “pond scum,” as Sanders put it, into biofuels. California universities, and especially UC San Diego, have played an important role in sparking innovation, Sanders said.

“UC San Diego has a great record in creating laboratory-to-marketplace partnerships,” he said.

UCSD is a great partner, said SDG&E President Niggli. The utility is working with the university, General Electric and CleanTech San Diego, a nonprofit organization focused on green technologies as part of the SmartCity initiative. The partnership aims to bring electric vehicles to the roads of San Diego first and to U.S. roads next.

“We’re right in the middle of a powerful transformation,” Niggli said.

More than 300 students, entrepreneurs and UCSD and UCLA alumni attended the conference.

Ten years ago, renewable energy made up 10 percent of SDG&E’s energy portfolio. Today, it’s up to 12 percent. California state law requires that number to reach 33 percent by 2020. The utility is bringing clean power to San Diego from throughout the nation—and Mexico, Niggli said. Officials recently signed contracts for wind power from Montana and for solar power from Nevada and Arizona.
But there still are significant challenges to greening the grid, Niggli said. A megawatt hour generated by traditional power sources costs $45. Natural gas costs $90, wind $120 and solar power anywhere from $110 to $140.

In addition, the electric car has the potential to dramatically change the power grid, Niggli said. Gas to drive his Jeep 100 miles costs $24. By comparison, it would cost him $2 to charge an electric vehicle for the same distance.

“Those are the kinds of incentive that make people sit up and take notice,” he said.