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Can California Go 100 Percent Green By 2045?

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — The Golden State is one step closer to going fully green after state Senate passed a bill that puts California on track to become 100 percent reliant on renewable energy by 2045.

Colleen Adams still picks figs with her granddaughter out back, but steps from the orchard, behind the tall gates, her great grandfather's 150-year-old Sacramento dairy farm is now a solar farm with enough energy to power thousands of homes.

"We were cows and crops....solar was not something we knew anything about," said Adams.

Adams still has the original deed for the land that was signed by Abraham Lincoln. But decades later, her family would make a deal with a major energy company: 115 acres of pastureland for rows of solar panels.

"It's the future," she said.

The future for the Golden State looks greener than ever.

"We believe that the future right now is wind solar." said state Senate President Pro Tem Kevin De Leon (D-Los Angeles).

He is pushing a measure that would require all California power to come from alternative energy sources such as solar, wind, and hydroelectric. The legislation passed the Senate, but can it pass the consumer test?

"Anything's possible if we are willing to incur the cost to get us there," said UC Davis Economist James Bushnell.

He studies the state's energy consumption and says a total reliance on renewables is feasible with new technologies.

"Batteries would become a lot cheaper and raise their capacity so they store enough energy so they can take us through the nighttime," he said.

But Bushnell says those breakthroughs will cost us.

"I think one of the issues is whether it's a good idea to go 100 percent if it turns out that getting to 100 percent doubles our cost, say relative to say 90 percent," he said.

Adams may not know much about the energy grid.

"Well technology, I'm personally behind..hahaha," she said.

She just hopes her granddaughter follows in her footsteps, to reduce the carbon footprint.

Now the 100 percent renewable bill heads to the Assembly.

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