Wind and solar energy will become the default for Berkeley ratepayers in October. Credit: Larkin Hammond/Unsplash
John Moriarty, the owner of The 14 Carats, a jewelry shop in The Elmwood, uses roughly 1,568 kilowatt-hours a month of electricity at his store, which costs him $571 a month. He’s about to see a hike of about $11 on his monthly energy bill, but it’s a price he’s willing to pay for the cleaner energy the city will make the default for businesses in Berkeley, starting next month.
“I think it’s a good thing,” he said. “Some people look to [Berkeley] to be on the vanguard of stuff like this. So you would think it’d be good for everybody.”
Berkeley City Council voted in June 2021 to switch the default for residential ratepayers from energy that was partially renewable to energy that is fully wind and solar-powered. That went into effect in…