>> good afternoon. thank you very much for coming today. a gorgeous day for a sunset solar discussion. everybody always says sunset,

solar, city, son? what you have before you is one of the largest reservoir is in san francisco. it serves over half the people of san francisco for its water, and we have the equivalent of 24,000 photovoltaic panels out here, and that is enough solar to give us 5 megawatts of solar, which triples the solar output in san francisco. lincoln high school up there is one of the largest in san francisco. this reservoir will produce enough power to light up lincoln high school for six and a half years. it provides enough solar and enough energy for 1100 homes in san francisco. it is a start, but it is part of the city cozy green plan. it adds to the city's hydropower, and it is not just for city hall or the hospitals, but in a few more months, it will also be powering the homes that will be built in hunters

point. the shipyard development program will be the first 100% greenhouse free electricity at a retail level because we will be bringing that power to them. so it is a good day for all of us to be celebrating all of that. obviously, this would not happen without a lot of partners, but the key person who was the most influential in doing all of this is the mayor of san francisco. during his term, we have made incredible strides in terms of all the kinds of green, green things you want to do, and the mayor is here to finally say this is up, running, testing is complete, and we are going to get power out of this reservoir. >> thank you to your leadership and to the commissioners at the puc and the staff at the public utilities commission here today. let me extend my appreciation to the two city representatives that are behind me as well, and that is our local district supervisor, carmen chu and

supervisor eric mar. both were instrumental in helping this process along. it got stuck for all kinds of reasons. nothing is ever as easy as it may appear. all kinds of details and nuances and all kinds of issues associated with making sure that we provided the right kind of work force to actually install these 24,000 panels. all of that was finally worked out. barbara hale and her leadership was instrumental in working and putting together the power purchasing agreement and putting -- getting the support of the board of supervisors and eventually getting 75 people to work, 21 of them from disadvantaged backgrounds. i do not know if you have had this opportunity -- of course, maybe i'm just looking out for it. i always get window seats, but

honestly, nothing is more thrilling than coming around and looking down at this project. i'm not saying you can see it from space, but you can certainly see it from a few thousand feet up, and it gives you a great sense of pride and expectation and hope that similar projects like this can be done not only throughout san francisco but all across this state and country. it is limitless, the capacity we have to do these kinds of private spirit with creative financing strategies and with these power purchasing agreements, these are easy things to do ultimately in terms of addressing the up-front capital needs. they can easily be financed and advance in a way that addresses our general budget fund shortfalls. this is really a model project. it tripled our municipally owned solar output, it gets us to 7 megawatts of production. again, still scratching the surface, but this represents the

largest municipally owned project in the state of california. here is a state of 38 million people, and what you see here today is the biggest of any of the other municipally owned projects in the state, one of the largest in the united states of america. again, we are still barely scratching the surface. the optimism that all of us share today, getting this thing off the ground and getting this thing up and running and to the great work that lies ahead, to wit, my final point. we have done an enormous amount with our local global climate action plan. i always call it local global, but it is local calls to roll back our greenhouse gas emissions by 2012. do not worry about that. we have already rolled them back 7% below with our 2008 numbers. those were just unveiled a few months back. it takes a couple of years to analyze the data. first city to put up its

greenhouse gas emissions to third-party review, so these are real numbers. why is that important? it has given us a confidence and optimism that we can reach some of our stretch goals, and we are going to create a new goal today. we are in the process of working to convene a task force led by some of the folks you see behind me in front of you that will represent the diversity that was represented in this planning process to put together a new goal, and that is to have 100% of the electricity that is drawn down in san francisco -- not just public, but also private -- 100% of it to be renewable by 2020. it may sound audacious to some and ridiculous to others, but it is absolutely achievable from my perspective. this is exactly how you do it. what we are already doing at

hetch hetchy and what we have done with our municipal road leads the nation. what we are doing in terms of increasing our private sector participation now 21 hundred solar installations that have been put up in our city alone, we are now leading. last year, there was no other big city in america that installed more solar than san francisco. we can get there with our extraordinary work we have down on energy efficiency. 45 megawatts of energy saved. again, we are barely scratching the surface. with the strategies that and his team have perfected, taking methane gas and converting it. all of these things, the wind efforts and the offshore how we're going create, and i will tell you, it is good to be lieutenant governor. we will get the ocean power project done right off the coast

here of california. with all of these things, that is up to 100 megawatts on the high end of potential power generation. we will do a small pilot, hopefully as early as next year, the early part of 2013. all of these things put together in the aggregate, i'm absolutely confident we can get there. that is what we are also announcing today, and i look forward to being a big partner for the city and helping steward the process. all of this combines nicely too nice words for the implementation of ab 32 by 2020. there is no question we can achieve that, and there's no question san francisco needs to be on the forefront in order for us to achieve that, which means we have to do more than any other big city in this state, as we always do. we can do it, the state will achieve its goals and we will once again reignite a national debate and again prove the leadership that has been a great

part of our heritage. congrats to everybody. thanks again to eric and carmen force during this and to joanna and the team and the department of environment. all great job. thanks for all of your hard work. >> thank you. this does not happen without a lot of work in city hall. the best things happen when they collaborate for the mayor and the board of supervisors. we have witnessed two of the leaders in this effort. carmen chu was the key sponsor and eric mar was the key vote. memo congratulations to the mayor for his leadership on the project, to my colleague, who was the key and deciding vote on the matter, but also to the department, who really worked hard to get the package together.

the department of environment, the puc. without the hard-working staff, we would not be at this step today. the mayor talked about how it was so exciting to be able to fly over san francisco and see the solar projects. it is just as exciting driving by the solar reservoir every single day and seeing one panel go up and two channels and finally, all of them seem to be up. finally, it is very exciting to be the home of the sunset reservoir project. the solar panels here. the sunset really is a cool place to be. just two weeks ago, we open up the first lead certified public library in the entire city, the first ever, and now, we are at the home of the sunset solar project. the sunset truly is a cool place to be. i just want to say thank you to all of the amazing staff members who really helped put this together. it is exciting to see the panels

of, to see them generating power, to see the people who now have job skills that are available to take on to other future projects. thank you to the staff, the mayor, and thank you to my staff for supporting this. >> you get a lot done with the sponsor of the board. it takes six votes to do a lot of things at the board of supervisors these days, and eric mar was the sixth vote. >> i think i'm getting way too much credit. this was a partnership with the mayor's office, the department of the environment, and many community-based organizations that advocated for the future. i used to take my daughter to the swings right on the corner there where you can overlook lincoln high school, and i know this is a great educational opportunity to teach about how we need to have a sustainable future for our children. when we were here a few months ago, these 12 football fields

with the 24,000-seat of panels is amazing. also, i'm proud to be here with the mayor and carmen and everyone to be part of this important partnership. the green jobs or local jobs that were created are also incredible, but think about it, this is clean and green power. that will generate power for up to 10,000 homes, or you could power san francisco general or the airport. it is just amazing, and i'm proud to be here with everyone. thank you. >> there are some people we want to find today. assistant general manager in charge of the power operations. thank you very much. the other great partner, obviously, is people who built this. if you recall this discussion come to get this done, it was a private/public partnership because he wanted to take advantage of the federal tax law

that allows us to get the 30% reimbursement, the cities cannot take that, so we have to have an outside company take that. >> thank you. it is thrilling to be here on this day when we are finally getting to turn this on and generate power for the city. recurrent energy has had a unique role in this project in that we are the owner and operator of the system selling the electricity to the utility, so it is a shining example of the way in which we can deploy tens of millions of dollars of private capital to partner with the city and deliver an important piece of public infrastructure that ultimately is delivering tremendous environmental benefits and tremendous community benefit. we are very proud to have played that role here, and i think it is also exciting to us, as an example of the way in which we are rethinking where and how

generation can be located. what is exciting about this project is also the fact that we are doing a kind of urban generation in that we are taking an unused space, filling it with solar panels, absorbing sunlight, and putting a power plant right in the middle of an area where electricity is going to be used. the other thing for us is really recognizing that this project has very literally put us on the map. i do not usually like to correct the mayor, but you actually can see this project from space. if you go onto google and look at sunset reservoir and click on the satellite imagery, you will see this project in all its glory as viewed from way up there, so another tremendous reflection of its scale. as everyone out here has noted, these kinds of things do not happen without a lot of vision and leadership, so we are thankful for the role we are playing and the opportunity to do this.

and for the mayor, for his vision, his leadership, steadfast support of the project, to supervisor mar for your sponsorship, to supervise a mar -- supervisor mar for your support. to the partners that help us build this thing and the tremendous support we received as a team that helped us to find workers, sourced locally here, create those real local jobs that we all talk about, and put those people to work learning new skills and helping to build this project here. and thanks also to all the support we received from the local solar community, particularly from solar, sierra club, and from right line. we are really proud to be here. thank you. >> thank you. the last speaker today is the head of our department of environment. they are our partner in all the things we do, and they will be

the lead agency working on that 10-year plan for san francisco to the greenhouse gas free. >> thanks. good afternoon. i'm the director of the san francisco department of the environment, and i'm pleased to be here today at this press conference. san francisco does have a very ambitious greenhouse gas emissions goals, and to reach them, we need to eliminate our dependence on fossil fuels. i'm optimistic that in 10 years, san francisco will meet the mayor pose a challenge to be 100% renewal will citywide. i would like to thank frank foundation for helping us to chart the course that will insure 100% renewable electricity in san francisco by 2020. the frank foundation has been a stellar department for the san francisco department of the environment and for the city. our renewable energy program has an established history with the foundation since they have provided previous funding for our exploratory work, on tidal

power and wave power. the current grant will fund a planning process that will develop a road map to 100% a renewable energy. we will work with the mayor's task force to be in stakeholders and city agencies, pg&e, and visionary renewable energy experts to make sure that our plan is both informed and achievable. currently, about 30% of san francisco's electricity comes from zero emissions sources, so we certainly do have a challenge ahead of us, but it is not an insurmountable goal. some may say it is an impossible goal, but the naysayers said the same thing about our san francisco recycling goals. they said we would never be able to achieve 75% of version rate by 2010, and we have reached a 77% ever generate. i know we can achieve this 100% when newly generated electricity and continue to be a climate

leader at the vanguard of renewable energy. just wanted to mention, as the mayor had said, there is a number of different ways to achieve this goal. there's a number of ways to look at different power sources. just to highlight a couple of the programs in san francisco that are just the beginning of our 100% renewal will goal, the goal provides similar incentives to residences, businesses, and non-profits to install solar on their building. 15 megawatts of solar projects over 2100 installations have been installed, and 45 new green jobs have been created city- wide. in regards to wait power, in addition to providing more solar installations, the potential

for way power is very promising. the city has been measuring weight power during a variety of conditions and have identified 30 megawatts to 100 megawatts of potential power generation of the coast. finally, when it is a renewable source to be a factor in to this mix. our department is modeling urban wind blows and developing a first of its kind web-based map to improve the understanding of our wind resource, much like the solar math we have here in san francisco. finally, hand-in-hand with developing renewals, we must reduce our energy demand. the more efficiently we use our electricity, the less of it we will need to produce. san francisco has undertaken several major efforts to improve our energy efficiency, which the mayor referenced today. in summary, working in concert with the mayor's 100 percent sound noble task force, pg&e, city agencies, and renewable energy providers, the department of the environment is looking

forward to leading this charge and ensuring that our city can be truly great live 100% renewable power by 2020, and i did want to thank the mayor for all of his leadership on this issue. thank you. >> thank you. i have been trying to figure out what the visual is. notice there are not a lot of gear is going on. it just sits there. there is two guys over there in orange vests you can barely see, and the mayor is going to talk to them on the phone and tell them to flip the switch. [laughter] gavin newsom -- mayor newsom: are you guys paying attention? [laughter] all right. we will do a countdown. we will do five, for your -- you got that? you have not flipped it, yet, have you? 5. four.

3. two. one. with that switch -- flip that switch. [laughter] unbelievable. it is live. we are all done? it is done. it is working. it is official. [applause] >> thank you all very much. we're happy to answer questions if you have any, but it is pretty apparent it is a wonderful day. thank you. >> the civil grand jury is a

unit and no one person can pursue their own idea to the exclusion without the force of others. not saying people don't come on with something they want to push. i have not seen it be successful in the 2 years i served. the topics are chosen by the current grand jury. we got to the top issues. the first one would be accountability? city government of the how does the city function and in what ways do they embrace business concepts in analyzing this

program? if you made a prediction that something was not going to cost something or something would cost something. an ordinary business, you would follow up and make sure you were on target. if you weren't, you would go back and revise your analysis or your system of analysis to get better predictions. we felt that a business practice would be if a department is required to file the report, there would be follow ups and someone would do something about them. another topic was homelessness. recognizing that a significant amount of budget goes to the homelessness program. how is the money being spent? the city has made great striding in finding homes for the homeless.

however the perception the homeless is it's not being solved. drinking in the parks. drug use. pan handling. those sorts of problems the citizens are seeing. so our recommendation was that city should provide homes, but really needs to address this other issue, which is the quality of life for homeless and other residents of the city. some people are suspicious of election process and question is it fair? is it open? it's accurate? we went to the department of elections and said we will really like to observe the election process. it was a time consuming process. we observed 4 elections.

the problems were fairly clear cut. the elections department needs a permanent home first operation side. they took out a 4-year lease and that did help the operation side for a while. that's a short term lease. the city should be submitted to find a permanent home for the operations elections and the last one, probably the report that interested me or got to me the most was the school's report much the admission process is unique only in san francisco. and one that i find personally very complicated and undually

so. we recommended that they seriously consider a lottery system that would a sign students to a school at the same time giving families the opportunity to go to a different school if they wanted to. we recommended they redefine the attendance area and have them attend closer to home. some department managers will say thank you. thank you for bringing this to light. thank you for identifying the problem, thank you for your work. others will wish that we had not asked the questions. may be don't appreciate the way the report is worded. disagree the problem identified is a problem. one of the things a civil grand

jury has to be careful about is that you maintain an objectivity and your report be factualy based and that your recommendations are based on findings. it's reviewed by the presiding judge and he orders a grant. the mayor's office is required to make responses within 60 days and the board of supervisors is responsible for responding in 90 days. in the past 2 years, they have undertaken to have hearings where the reports are reviewed, the grand jury has an opportunity to testify or make comments. the departments are invited to come and make comments where they agree and disagree and the

public can comment. if a person would like to learn more about the reports that can go to the sf gov and go to courts, you will find civil grand jury. the advice i would give to anyone trying to understand and short on time. i would go to report and each one has an executive summary in which we tried to explain what we're looking at and then i would go to the back and read the summary of the finding and read the recommendations. if you read those 3 sections, you would have a fairly good idea of who we looked at, what we found and what we recommended.

>> i am this assistance superintendent for special indication at san francisco unified. we have with us the supervisor from district 8. we have a supervisor from district 9. we have many