
In early 2018, as the national cannabis press corps was focused on California’s rough regulatory roll-out, a small cultivator in San Francisco caught a few headlines for its move to 100-percent renewable energy sources. Sense Grown, a small indoor grower in San Francisco, had partnered with the city’s CleanPowerSF program, which funnels alternative energy sources to customers who are willing to pay more for a sustainable operation.
With two 36-light flower rooms and “a traditional HPS setup” in a converted garage in SoMA, cultivator Rob King was eager to find a way to enact sweeping sustainable business practices. He’d worked with CleanPowerSF at a past job, and he figured that the opportunity would be ideal for a cannabis grow.
“As a way to look at the lowest-hanging fruits in terms of biggest impact we could have on sustainability, … it was kind of a no-brainer for us,” King says. “For a business, it ends up costing less than two cents per kilowatt-hour more to switch over to 100-percent renewable. It’s really not anything that’s prohibitive for the business, even as we’re going through all the regulations and new taxes right now. It’s still a great option for us.”
Initiated in May 2016, the CleanPowerSF program is a community choice aggregate (CCA), which is a negotiating tool for municipalities interested in offering alternative energy sources while still utilizing the grid of whatever local utility operates in the region. CCA legislation originated in Massachusetts, but it has since found success in California, Ohio, Illinois, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island—states that, in some form or another, have a growing cannabis industry. (Other states, including Colorado, are actively studying the matter.)
In San Francisco, the city partners with Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) to push renewable energy sources onto the utility’s grid.
“CCAs usually offer customers multiple purchasing options with different levels of renewable electricity,” according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. “For example, San Francisco residents can choose between the ‘Green’ package, in which 40 percent of the electricity is sourced from renewables, and the ‘SuperGreen’ package, which sources 100 percent of electricity from renewables. The Green package’s electricity rate is slightly lower than the rate of PG&E, the local IOU. The SuperGreen package is sold at a $0.02/kilowatt-hour (kWh) premium over the Green package rate. Most CCAs around the country have similar packages.”
Sense opted into the SuperGreen package.
“The city’s ability to purchase power allows them to really fine-tune [the sources] they’re purchasing from [as part of this program],” King says. The CleanPowerSF program includes solar, wind and hydroelectric power. “It allows them to pull from a range of sources—and if they’re not able to keep up with demand, it allows them to spend some money and help fund some projects to get more renewables in the state of California.
“You’re literally supporting increasing the infrastructure for renewable energy in the state when you utilize this kind of program.”
Source: National Renewable Energy LaboratorySource: National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Next up for Sense: King says the company is looking into closed-loop recyclable water and the LED market. “The technology is changing so rapidly, and things are getting cheaper and better. I think it might be worth it, since we’re already 100-percent renewable, to hold off for another year on that. It’s kind of a strategic approach to sustainability in a couple different ways.”
If he and the staff do elect to overhaul the Sense lighting system, PG&E offers $100,000 in interest-free financing for five years for any company interested in an LED package.