Lancaster Receives Net Zero Grant

Lancaster’s city-run clean energy power program received a $1.5 million grant from the California Energy Commission to support efforts at becoming a net zero energy city. Lancaster Choice Energy, a city-owned utility, will use the grant to create a detailed business plan by 2018 on how the city will reach net zero in its energy use. It applied for the grant in partnership with the Net Zero Energy Alliance in San Rafael. Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris said it was exciting for the city to receive the grant. “It provides a greater means for us to increase and expand our green energy efforts throughout our community, bringing us even closer to our net zero goals,” Parris said in a prepared statement. Lancaster Choice Energy became operational a year ago and provides power to residents and businesses through its own sources and distributes it on lines owned by Southern California Edison. The utility plans to apply for an $8 million phase two grant from the energy commission in the future.