Ahead of chairing the session on streamlining storage interconnection and regulatory approval, California Energy Commission Commissioner Noemi Gallardo will deliver a keynote address on the state’s clean energy trajectory. California’s battery storage fleet now exceeds 21,000 MW — one of the largest in the world — up from less than 700 MW when Governor Newsom took office in 2019, a rise of more than 2,500% in seven and a half years. Commissioner Gallardo will reflect on the policy framework behind this transformation and what the next phase means for the developers, investors and asset owners in the room.
In this session, expect to find out:
- The 21 GW milestone and what’s driven it — how California built the nation’s largest battery fleet, spanning nearly 16,000 MW across 310 in-state utility-scale systems, 2,000 MW from facilities in Nevada and Arizona serving the CAISO grid, and 3,000 MW from over 300,000 distributed systems at homes, farms and businesses
- Storage unleashing solar — for the first time, Californians used more solar than natural gas in the first half of 2026, with solar usage up 22% and gas down 51% since 2024, as an 80% expansion in battery capacity gave solar somewhere to go after sunset
- Progress toward 2045 — with 67% of retail electric sales now from clean energy and clean resources meeting 100% of CAISO demand for part of the day on 92% of days so far in 2026, what’s required to reach the state’s 100% clean electricity target
- Permitting at pace — the CEC’s Opt-In Certification Program has approved 1,850 MW of storage and 1,450 MW of solar in the past year, with over 3,000 MW in the queue — and the scale of the remaining challenge, with more than 52,000 MW of storage needed by 2045, setting the stage for the panel to follow
