California has the third highest energy productivity in the U.S. (fourth highest if including District of Columbia), generating $5.68 of GDP in 2023 (in 2023 dollars) for every 10,000 British Thermal Units (BTU) of energy consumed.

California has continuously outperformed the rest of the U.S. in terms of energy efficiency gains as a share of GDP produced—averaging a 3.8% compounded average growth rate (CAGR) between 2013 and 2023 compared to the 2.3% CAGR recorded for the rest of the U.S. during the same period.

After posting lower energy productivity in 2022 than the previous year, energy productivity resumed growth but at a tepid rate in California. Continued setbacks could jeopardize the state’s chance of meeting the SB 350 targets, which include requiring California to double statewide energy efficiency savings.¹¹⁵

Energy intensity resumed its declining trend as the pandemic fades further into the rearview, falling 2.5% in 2023 relative to 2022.

Over the last ten years, energy intensities of the residential, commercial, and industrial sectors were 21.4% to 31.3% lower in 2023 than in 2013.

Energy intensity of the transportation sector rose for the third time in a row (+2.0%), even though it still has the largest 10-year drop from 2013 to 2023 (-38.6%).

California’s total statewide energy consumption was 4.3% lower in 2023 than in 1990, despite the state being 31% more populous.

Since climbing back to pre-pandemic levels, California’s energy consumption resumed its declining trend, falling 0.6% in 2023 relative to 2022.

Renewable energy consumption growth continues to outpace that of fossil fuels and other sources for both electric and non-electric consumption, growing by 53.4% and 125.1%, respectively, between 2013 to 2023.¹¹⁶

Solar is the only source where renewable energy for electricity consumption has increased consistently over time—up 5.7% from 2022 to 2023.

Consumption from wind and geothermal either declined (-4.2% for wind and -5.8% for wood and waste) or flatlined (+0.8% from geothermal).

Total energy consumption is 14% lower in 2023 than in 2007 and 4% lower than in 1990.

Total electricity consumption was 11% lower in 2023 than in 2008 but 13% higher than in 1990.

Energy consumption per capita in 2023 remained well below the levels recorded in 1990 across all sectors.

While energy consumption in the industrial sector has been declining in recent years, the opposite is true for the transportation sector—the largest end-use sector. More than double the next largest end-use sector (industrial), transportation sector energy consumption rose by 3.9% from 2022 to 2023. Entirely driven by diesel consumption.

Motor vehicle gasoline (including fuel ethanol) consumption actually fell 0.8% or 12 trillion Btu from 2022 to 2023.

Electricity consumption has risen by 15.5% in the residential sector and 1.1% in the commercial sector — evidence that California is gradually electrifying its buildings and vehicles.

Natural gas consumption in the miscellaneous sectors, which consists of agriculture and mining & construction fell 11.2% from 2022 to 2023 while electricity consumption rose 1.8%.

Over the same 20-year period, the industrial sector’s natural gas consumption has risen by 3.3% but its electricity consumption has fallen by 13.3%.

After falling in recent years, natural gas consumption in the residential sector and the commercial sector jumped 7.2% and 6.7%. Rapidly rising electricity bills may be a culprit, as households and businesses substituted electricity consuming appliances for gas consuming ones.

California surpassed Hawaii for the first time, in 2023, to have the lowest per capita electricity consumption (6.11 megawatt-hours versus Hawaii’s 6.19 MWh) among all 50 states.

Part of the significantly lower consumption may be due to drastically rising electricity bills.

On a year-over-year basis, per-capita electricity consumption fell by 5.1% in California from 2022 to 2023, more than doubling the 2.0% decrease for the rest of the U.S.

California’s residential electricity per capita usage of 2.1 megawatt-hours (MWh) was the second lowest in the country in 2023, higher than only Hawaii (1.9 MWh).

California’s year-over-year residential electricity consumption per capita fell significantly by 7.6% from 2022 and 2023 compared to the 4.6% drop in the rest of the U.S.

California’s energy consumption per capita (which includes electricity) was 173.9 million BTU in 2023, the third lowest after Rhode Island (165.8 million BTU) and Massachusetts (167.3 million BTU).

California’s energy consumption per capita has fallen by 63.8 million BTU, or more than a quarter (-26.8%) compared to 1990.

Energy consumption per capita in California declined by 6.8% from 2013 to 2023, a similar pace compared to the rest of the U.S. (-7.0%) during the same period. However, per-capita energy consumption declined by just 0.7% from 2022 to 2023 in California, lagging the rest of the U.S.

California’s electricity bill as a percentage of GDP was 1.53% in 2023, unchanged from 2022 but slightly higher than the shares from 2016 to 2021, when it was below 1.5%.

California’s ranking in terms of the lowest electricity bill as percentage of GDP has slipped to ninth place in 2023. California’s slip in the rankings is due to having one of the highest electricity costs per kilowatt-hour (kWh) in the U.S.

California’s energy expenditures fell 0.5%, to 5.0% of GDP in 2023. While California’s bill was lower than the U.S. without California, where expenditures were 5.8% in 2023, that gap is quickly shrinking from 2.4% lower in 2013 to only 0.7% lower in 2023.

In terms of energy expenditures relative to GDP California fell to sixth place in 2022 and further to ninth place in 2023.

In 2023, California had the eleventh-lowest average monthly electricity bill for industrial customers with the average monthly bill in California ($4,513) being 28.1% lower than the U.S. average.

California's average monthly commercial electricity bill ($1,274) has become considerably more expensive relative to the U.S. average ($763) during the last decade—from 22.9% higher in 2013 to 67.0% higher in 2023.

California's once-held advantage of having a lower average residential electricity bill compared to the rest of the United States vanished in the wake of the pandemic with residential electricity bills going from 19.8% below the national average in 2013 to 5.8% higher than the U.S. average in 2023.

California has some of the highest electricity costs per kWh—second-highest (jointly with Connecticut and Maryland) for residential customers ($0.30/kWh), second-highest for commercial customers ($0.24/kWh), and the fourth-highest for industrial customers ($0.19/kWh).

Compared to Utah, which had the lowest per-capita residential electricity bill in 2023 ($84.97), California’s per-capita residential electricity bill was 70% higher—a significant spike compared to 2017, when California’s per-capita electricity bill was only 19% higher than Utah’s.

In 2023, utility gas was the primary source for home heating in 41 of California’s 58 counties.

Homeowners are more likely to have solar as the main fuel heating source than renters. In 2023, solar made up 2.0% of owner-occupied households and just 0.3% of renter-occupied households (roughly 10% growth in both categories from 2022).

Utility gas remains the dominant heating fuel source in California, accounting for 69.0% of owner-occupied households and 50.3% of renter-occupied households in 2023, up slightly from 68.6% and 49.8% in 2022, respectively.

In 2023, California had the second-highest share of households in which solar was the main heating fuel (1.3%) with about 174,000 households using solar as the main heating fuel, behind only Hawaii (4.8%).

Solar adoption varies considerably across counties in California, with several small counties by population punching above their weights. In 2023, Alpine County had the highest adoption rate (4.9%), with counties such as Fresno County (2.8%) in the Central Valley not far behind.

Parts of Fresno County, Kern County, and San Joaquin County emerge as notable hotspots with high solar adoption among owner-occupied households. East Central Fresno City topped the list with 8.6% of owner-occupied households using solar as the main heating fuel in 2023, followed by Southwest Bakersfield City (8.2%).

Solar adoption as the main heating fuel source among renter-occupied households still lags far behind owner-occupied households.

The new version of the Net Energy Metering policy (NEM 3.0), which took effect on April 15, 2023, reduced the amount that solar customers are compensated for their excess energy production and resulted in an 80% reduction in demand for rooftop solar from May to November 2023 compared to the previous year. However, sales spiked in the months after the change was announced in December 2022 but before it went into effect in April 2023.

In 2023, electricity savings from energy efficiency totaled 2.86 million megawatt-hours, or 1.19% of total electricity consumption. This was slightly lower than in 2022 (2.95 million MWh).

2023 was the second-lowest year in incremental savings, just behind 2019’s 2.69 million MWh.

The commercial sector (45.0%) and the residential sector (50.8%) accounted for the lion’s share of savings in 2023. The industrial sector made up the remainder.

Electricity savings fell 7.8% from 1.58 million MWh in 2022 to 1.45 million MWh in 2023 for the residential sector and unchanged (-0.2%) for the commercial sector.