Franklin Oliveira has been creating holiday joy as Santa at Los Banos events for 27 years. He doesn’t stop there. Franklin is the Los Banos High School custodian who shows up in a variety of costumes at any opportunity just to make students smile. The students are such fans that they once rewarded him with his lifelong dream of a skydiving session. The video of Franklin skydiving as Superman is priceless.
But Santa isn’t just landing reindeer on his roof – he also installed rooftop solar to help lower his energy bills. As a savvy energy customer Franklin is looking forward to good news for Los Banos coming in 2022. The City of Los Banos invited Peninsula Clean Energy to town to help locals save on energy. All Los Banos residents and businesses will automatically save a few dollars on monthly PG&E bills starting next spring, whether you have solar or not.
Peninsula Clean Energy is a public agency started by San Mateo County and its cities to purchase energy from clean sources. It buys the energy from a large solar farm just outside of Los Banos on Billy Wright Road, as well as from other sources. The agency passes on a 5% discount on electricity generation to all its customers. Customers with CARE or Medical Baseline will keep their discounts and enjoy this additional savings as well! Peninsula Clean Energy partners with PG&E which will continue to deliver electricity and handle billing. Enrollment will be automatic, and customers can also choose to opt out of the program. Three enrollment notices explaining these new energy choices will be sent to all customers starting in February 2022.
All customers will see some changes on their bill when they switch to Peninsula Clean Energy. Customers who, like Solar Santa, have their own rooftop solar will still get an annual true-up of their PG&E related charges for energy transmission and distribution, but they will also begin receiving charges or credits monthly from Peninsula Clean Energy for electricity generation. The monthly billing for electricity generation helps track solar production and energy use more closely. When a rooftop solar system is producing more electricity than a household uses, Peninsula Clean Energy will buy that excess energy at a higher price monthly than what residents are currently earning from PG&E. Learn more about solar billing here.
Peninsula Clean Energy will be doing extensive community outreach in Los Banos in 2022, including a series of online workshops for solar customers. The first workshop will be on January 20th 2022 at 6 pm, and you can register here.
Franklin is already feeling jolly at the thought of saving more on his energy bills next year. What does Santa do with his solar energy after Christmas? “I charge up my electric golf cart and go golfing!” chuckled Franklin. Well deserved, Santa!
To our future customers in Los Banos, Peninsula Clean Energy can’t wait to begin serving you in April of 2022. Happy holidays!
Live in Los Banos and already have solar on your roof?
Learn how you will save with Peninsula Clean Energy at our free workshop on January 20th.
Learn more at: https://www.peninsulacleanenergy.com/los-banos/