California has pledged to become carbon neutral within 25 years. Achieving that goal is no small task.

Southern California Edison recently studied what it will take. According to the strategy the utility laid out, the state’s electricity grid will need to deliver 100% clean power to consumers. So it will need to add more wind, solar, and energy storage.

“In our strategy, we also foresee that 50% of the households in California will have solar panels,” says Ignacio Fernandez, the utility’s senior advisor on climate policy.

He says transitioning to renewables will make the electricity grid a low-carbon source of power for heating buildings and charging electric vehicles.

“We can use the electricity grid to decarbonize other sectors that are very hard to decarbonize, mainly transportation and building sectors,” he says.

For this strategy to work, vehicles and buildings must run primarily on electricity. The utility estimates that three-quarters of cars and three-quarters of space and water heating need to be electric.

So Fernandez says California can reach its climate goals, but it will take widespread clean power and electrification.

Reporting credit: Stephanie Manuzak/ChavoBart Digital Media.