In California, a Massachusetts native has come up with a novel way to take whole cities and counties over into alternative energy sourcing using a technique called Community Choice Aggregation, or CCA. It requires state legislation to enable, but once it happens, municipalities have an effective way to negotiate and buy their power from any source, using the power company as a carrier, rather than a monopoly supplier.

Power Play – Paul Fenn – PG&E | Fast Company

Pacific Gas & Electric proudly calls itself the “greenest big utility in America.” The California company has relatively low emissions, thanks to a mix of hydro and nuclear power. “We’re investing in renewables like crazy,” says Robert Parkhurst, PG&E’s earnest, bespectacled environmental-policy manager. “We’re trying to walk the talk here.” But PG&E has struggled to meet a state target of 20% certified renewable energy — wind, geothermal, solar, biomass — by 2010; it’s currently delivering just 12%. Meanwhile, it’s ramping up investments in natural gas, and when Californians flick the switch at home, chances are it’s still linked to a fossil-fueled power plant.

Activist-turned-entrepreneur Paul Fenn wants to rewire that circuit. Fenn has spent his career fighting to green our energy supply by transforming the industry’s structure, creating Community Choice Aggregation, or CCA, which lets a locality take over the sourcing of its own power. CCA may be reaching a tipping point in California: More than 50 communities, representing 20% of the state’s privately provided electric load, are in the process of implementing the program, aiming to deliver 100% renewable electricity in Marin County, for instance, and 51% in San Francisco. “The whole point is to prove that a major city can go to 51% green in a very short period of time without any increase in rates,” Fenn says. “If we can, this should spread virally.”