California’s Renewable Highways Legislation

SB 49 (2023) orders the California Department of Transportation to ​“evaluate the suitability” of the land it owns alongside highway roadways, exits and interchanges for developing renewable energy, energy storage and electrical transmission and distribution facilities. The bill gives the agency until 2025 to finish analyzing the potential for the land under its control and the steps it must take within state law, and in coordination with state energy and utility regulators, to make the development possible.

Given the challenge of siting and permitting the hundreds of gigawatts of clean energy and transmission grid infrastructure needed to decarbonize the U.S. power grid, land that can be readily redeployed for this purpose provides a valuable opportunity.